fi Ddmif^e i (| B ible Ca pds. 





A Domine in Bible Lands, 



by- 



REV. EDWARD GRIFFIN READ, 



Pastor of the Second Reformed Church, 
Somerville, N. J. 



<>tw 



H-LfCjlb ^ 



( 



somerville;, n. j. 

Unionist-Gazette Association. 
1894. 



Copyright, I894 ; 
by 

The Unionist-Gazette Association, 
Somerville, N J. 



TO THE 

SECOND REFORMED CHURCH OF RARITAN, 

Through whose Kindness their Pastor was Permitted to visit 
the Lands herein Described. 



This Book is Affectionately Dedicated, 



PREFA C E. 



HY another book on Bible Lands? it may be asked of one who 
rashly ventures to inflict it on a reading public, already in pos- 
session of a varied and copious literature on the subject. There are 
books of solid instruction by distinguished Biblical scholars and careful 
explorers, and books of charming description and word-painting, or of 
travel and adventure pleasantly told — books for the student and books 
ior the popular taste — is there any room for more, unless to relate new 
discoveries or to present the impressions of one who already holds the 
ear of the public? And what place is there for a book that professes to 
offer nothing new in the way of scholarly investigation, and cannot make 
its appeal to the curiosity which desires to know what a great man 
thinks about the things he has seen? 

These are pertinent questions that occurred to the author when partial 
friends proposed to him to publish the narrative of his sight-seeing in 
Egypt and the Holy Land. It had not been his purpose to do this. He 
can truly say, to adapt the language of St. Paul, if any minister ever 
went to Egypt and the Holy Land without expectation of making a 
book on his return, I more. But after his return, in order to share 
with his congregation the pleasure and profit derived from the trip, he 
delivered a series of Sunday evening discourses in his own church, going 
over the ground so often traversed, that his people might see with his 
eyes and obtain his views of those lands of universal interest. These 
lectures were received so kindly, and their author was so strongly urged 
to put them before a larger audience through the press, that he yielded 
to persuasion; in hope that what had proved useful at home might 
prove not less useful elsewhere. 

Yet the book is not simply a reprint of sermonic addresses prepared 
for oral delivery. These have been carefully rewritten throughout, and 
corrected and supplemented by reference to the best authorities. While 




viii 



PRE FA CE. 



the present work makes no pretensions of original research or of profound 
scholarship, but aims only to furnish the general reader with a succinct 
narrative of what the intelligent tourist sees in the countries visited, 
pains have been taken to make the narrative accurate and ample for 
the purpose. It is hoped that notwithstanding the brevity which the 
author has practised, and possibly by reason of it, some Sunday-school 
Superintendents and teachers and scholars and even ministers may gain 
help from this little book in pursuing their studies. 

The author would cordially commend the firm of Henry Gaze & 
Sons of London, under whose management his journey was made in the 
winter and spring of 1893; and would express his appreciation of the 
skilful conduct of the party by their agent, Dr. R. H. Crunden, an 
accomplished linguist and genial companion. He would also acknowledge 
his indebtedness in the preparation of this book to the following authori- 
ties: — Baedeker's, Murray's, and Appleton's Guide-books, the Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica, Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible," " A Thousand 
Miles up the Nile" by Miss Amelia B. Edwards, "Notes for the Nile" 
by H. D. Rawnsley, "Egypt and Japan" and "Among the Holy Hills" 
by Rev. Dr. H. M. Field, "Through Bible Lands" by Rev. Dr. Philip 
ScharT, and "The Holy Land and the Bible" by Rev. Dr. Cunningham 
Geikie. In these and other works, such as Rev. Dr. Edward Robin- 
son's Researches in Palestine, Dean Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, and 
Dr. W. H. Thompson's The Land and the Book, the interested reader 
may profitably follow up lines of thought only suggested here. 

Edward Griffin Read. 

November i, 1894. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 


Alexandria, . . . . . 


1 


M. 


Cairo and Its Mosques, .... 


10 


III. 


The Pyramids, ..... 


18- 


IV. 


Up the Nile to Luxor, 


27 


V. 


The Temples of Luxor and Karnak, 


35 


VI. 


The Tombs of the Theban Kings, 


44 


VII. 


Memorial Temples of Thebes. 


51 


vnr. 


Denderah and the Boulak Museum, 


58- 


IX. 


The Copts, and American Missions in Egypt, 


66 


X. 


Jaffa, ...... 


79 


XI. 


From Jaffa to Jerusalem, .... 


88 


XII. 


A General View of Jerusalem, 


97 


XIII. 


The Mosque of Omar, and Bethesda, 


. 103- 


XIV. 


The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 


110 


XV. 


On Mount Zion, ..... 


. 119 


XVI. 


Round the Walls of Jerusalem, 


127 


XVII. 


Bethlehem, ...... 


. 136 


XVIII. 


Mount of Olives, Bethany and Jericho, 


• 143 


XIX. 


The Dead Sea and the Jordan, 


. 150 


XX. 


From Jericho to Ai and Ramallah, 


156 


XXI. 


Ramallah and Sinjil, .... 


, • 165* 


XXII. 


Jacob's Well and Nablous, 


171 


XXIII. 


Across the Plain of Jezreel, 


. 178- 


XXIV. 


Nazareth and Tiberias, 


186- 


XXV. 


Capernaum and Plain of Merom, 


. 195- 


XXVI. 


CiESAREA PHILIPPI, .... 


20& 


XXVII. 


Damascus, 


. 211 


XXVIII. 


Baalbec, ...... 


224 


XXIX. Beirut, ....... 


. 232 



PART I. 



EGYPT. 



A Domine in Bible Lands. 



CHAPTER I. 
Alexandria. 

E had made a delightful visit in Athens, exploring its classic 
ruins, and familiarizing ourselves with the interesting features 
of the modern city ; which indeed is so intensely modern as to 
prove somewhat disappointing to the visitor. We had climbed the 
Acropolis, and lingered with rapture amidst the remains of the match- 
less Parthenon and the graceful Erectheium ; had stood on Mars Hill, 
and read aloud Paul's address to the Athenians, and recited together 
the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer on that historic spot ; had 
visited the temples of Jupiter Olympus and Theseus, and Hadrian's 
Arch, and the Theatre of Dionysius, and the ancient Stadium, and the 
Tower of the Winds, and an old Pagan Cemetery that has recently been 
excavated with its curious monuments. We had done the National 
Museum, including Dr. Schliemann's collections of gold ornaments 
from the tomb of Agamemnon, and had seen his own handsome house 
and the various public buildings, such as the Palace, the University, the 
Library and the Academy. And we had made an excursion of twelve 
miles to Eleusis to examine the vast ruins of the Temple of Ceres; in 
our drive over the mountains and around the Bay of Salamis, obtaining 
charming views of many spots famed in history. 

But loath as one is to leave a city and a country so rich in thrilling 
memories, the expectation of seeing the Orient draws one willingly 
away. It was on the third of March, 1893, that we sailed from the 
Piraeus, now, as of old, the port oi Athens, on the steamer Tewfik Rab- 
bani, bound for Alexandria. This was a steamer of the Egyptian line ; 
and while our cabin passengers were mostly Europeans, on the lower 

L 1 



2 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



decks, fore and aft, we caught our first glimpse of the Orient in a 
motley compare of Egyptians, Turks, Greeks, Jews and Syrians. Some 
wore on the head the red fez — a felt skull cap with black tassel ; but 
more of them wore turbans, white, yellow or green — the latter indicat- 
ing that the wearer was a descendant of Mahomet, or had made a pil- 
grimage to Mecca. Some were clad in baggy Turkish trousers with 
sashes of gay colors, and embroidered jackets. Some wore the white 
Albanian kilt, and some the long flowing robes of the East. They se- 
lected their places on deck, spread out their quilts and rugs and lay 
down ; while over them the sailors raised a canvass awning to keep 
them comfortable for the night. 

At sunset one of these forlorn bodies went on the upper deck at the 
bow, and uttered the call to prayer, according to the Mohammedan 
custom • and one after another followed him thither, and began each 
by himself to recite his prayers. First, the worshipper removed his 
shoes or slippers. Then standing up he put a thumb to the lobe of 
each ear, turned to the left and then to the right to invoke help of the arch- 
angel, supposed to be on either side of him ; bowed himself several 
times ; then dropped on his knees, and bowing forward, touched his face 
to the ground twice. He rose to his feet, recited more prayers, and re- 
peated his genuflexions, going through the same round for eight or ten 
minutes. The devout Mohammedan will say his prayers five times a 
day, and at the call of the muezzin, or clerk of the mosque, uttered from 
the tapering minaret of the building, will drop his business wherever he 
is, and proceed to pray. One form that he recites in each of these 
five daily devotions, runs thus : 

" In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful, 
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds ! 
The Compassionate, the Merciful, 
King on the day of reckoning ! 

Thee only do we worship, and to thee do we cry for help. 

Guide thou us on the straight path, 

The path of those to whom thou hast been gracious— 

With whom thou art not angry, 

And who go not astray. Amen." 

After their religious exercises we saw the deck passengers take sup- 
per. They were not fed by the steamship officials, but brought their 
simple provision with them — small loaves or rolls of coarse bread, baked 
as hard as possible, which they put in basins, and poured on oil out of 
tin cans to soak the bread till it was soft enough to eat, and to make it 



ALEXANDRIA. 



3 



palatable ; for in the East oil takes the place of butter with us. There 
are various kinds of bread used by the Arabs in Egypt. Often it is 
made in thin cakes about the size of a break fast -plate, that are flabby 
like a tough griddle cake, and are baked by throwing the dough on the 
inside of a large heated earthen jar, in which a fire has previously been 
made and allowed to burn out. These are made of unbolted flour. In 
the cities one sees exposed for sale loaves of white bread like ours and 
crackers and rolls, that look appetizing ; and alongside of them great 
trays of sodden pie-crust, sometimes with streaks of sweetmeat or mo- 
lasses running through it, which the poor esteem a delicacy. In the 
native bazaars everywhere one sees split peas, beans, lentils, rice, mil- 
let, onions and radishes for sale, which, with fish and smoked meats, 
seem to make up the poor man's diet. 

Early on the second morning of our voyage we sighted the light-house 
or Pharos off the port of Alexandria. This is a modern structure; — 
not the ancient and famous one of Ptolemy, whose builder, it is said, 
carved the king's name on it in soft stone or plaster that he put over 
his own name carved in the rock of the tower itself; so that when, in 
the course of years, the plaster wore away, his own name came out to 
view as the builder. Soon we saw the low-lying coast, without a hill 
or elevation on it, but bristling with forts, at whose base the sea of 
waters broke on a sea of sand ; while to our left, as we entered the port, 
rose the buildings of the city of Alexandria. We sailed past the mole 
or breakwater and anchored in the commodious harbor that was filled 
with shipping of all nations. 

In response to a yellow flag that we ran up a health officer came 
aboard in a small boat ; and the mail officers in another boat, and took 
off the mail. At another signal a large number of boats drawn up half 
a mile away, fifty-seven of them by actual count, came trooping towards 
us filled with natives, who raced furiously in their eagerness to reach the 
steamer first, and yelled and jabbered and gesticulated in the most lu- 
dicrous manner. Pandemonium seemed to have broken loose. The 
occupants of the boats were hotel-runners and porters, who had scented 
their prey from afar. They reached the steamer's side and swarmed up 
the gangway like pirates boarding a vessel. One lithe young fellow 
climbed over the guards of the promenade-deck likeja cat and landed 
at our feet in a moment to present the card of his|hotel and ask us to 
go with him. In the wild uproar of the first rush it seemed as though 
every unfortunate traveller would be torn in pieces. But these swarthy, 



4 



A D 0M1XE IX BIBLE LAXDS. 



excited sons of Africa were not half so terrible as they looked, and socn 
we found our way to the boats of Henry Gaze 6c Sons, that had been 
rowed to the other side of the steamer, and embarked on them with 
our baggage, and were speedily set ashore. 

At last we had reached the goal of our desires and dreams — to see 
Egypt, the land of hoar antiquity and sacred mystery; land of massive 
temples, of vast rock-hewn tombs and mighty stone Colossi : land of 
cloudless skies and constant sunshine, where all the day exhibits the 
splendor of afternoon, and the climate is soft and balmy, and the adja- 
cent deserts drink up every particle of miasm exhaled from decaying 
vegetation or city filth, leaving the air exquisitely pure and sweet. Yes. 
we were in Egypt, the land of primitive civilization, whose beginnings 
run back into the morning twilight of history. For Menes, the hrst 
king of the first dynasty, was no mythical person, but the first tribal 
king who united several petty chieftains of the Nile ; and he reigned, 
according to Brugsch. not later than 4400 B. C. : according to the chro- 
nology of Mariette. as early as 5004 B. C. The long line of rulers fol- 
lowing him consisted of thirty-one dynasties, divided for convenience' 
sake into three periods, known as the Ancient, the Middle and the New 
Empires. The Ancient Empire includes the first eleven dynasties ; 
lasting, by Brugsch's chronology, from 4400 B. C. to 2500 B. C. The 
Middle Empire includes the next nine dynasties, the 12th to the 20th 
inclusive, from 2500 B. C. to 1200 B. C. The Xew Empire takes in 
the remaining dynasties, from 1200 B. C. to 360 B. C. Then came the 
Persian conquerors, then the Macedonians, under Alexander the Great, 
in 332 B. C. ; followed by the Greek kings known as the Ptolemies 
from 305 B. C. till 27 B. C.. when the Romans conquered them. 

But for 4.000 years— with only the breach caused by the reign of the 
Hyksos or Shepherd Kings in Lower Egypt for 400 years, the same 
who welcomed Joseph and his family — native kings ruled over the 
country, and built great cities and magnificent temples and tombs, and 
waged successful wars against neighbouring peoples, and developed the 
arts of civilization beyond all contemporaries. Such was the solidity ot 
Egyptian architecture, that some of its monuments remain to-day but 
little injured after standing 5.600 years. And such was the genius of 
Egyptian literature that the " Precepta of Ptah-Hotep." who lived 111 
the fifth dynasty, 5.200 years ago. and compiled the sayings of wise men 
before his time, teach a purity of morals and a social refinement worthy 
of the best authors of our own day. How could it be that so mighty 



ALEXANDRIA. 5 

and so wise a people should sink into the condition predicted by 
Ezekiel,* and become "the basest of the kingdoms" and "no more 
Tule over the nations " ? 

Yet the truthfulness of this prediction was soon vindicated in the 
overthrow of the Pharaohs and the subjection of Egypt to foreign 
power, from which indeed it has never since been fully emancipated. 
The Saracens succeeded the Romans as masters of the country, and 
the Turks succeeded the Saracens ; and the English are even now sup- 
planting the Turks, and exercise a practical protectorate. For more 
than 2,000 years Egypt has been prostrate and degraded in political and 
social condition ; and though during the present century she has enjoyed 
the vigorous and enlightened rule of Mohammed Ali and his descend- 
ants, the burden of former evils still remains unlifted fiom the shoulders 
of the wretched masses, who suffer under excessive taxation and mis- 
rule and cruel oppression, and are a spiritless and unaspiring people. 
The least thoughtful visitor to-day can hardly fail to be impressed with 
the contrast between the grandeur of the old empire, as attested by its 
gigantic architectural remains, and the poverty and weakness of the 
country at present. Centuries of ignorant and vicious despotism have 
left their mark upon the land and its inhabitants. 

This we observed for ourselves throughout our stay in Egypt. Mean- 
while everything that we saw in the short mile's drive from the wharf to 
our hotel, the Hotel Abbat, was of curious and novel interest ; remind- 
ing us that we had passed from Europe to another continent, where the 
people are different, their religion and laws and social customs and dress 
are different, the houses and shops and even the animals different from 
those of Europe. One sees, it is true, English and French and Italian 
and Greek signs over the doors of many places of business ; whole 
streets in Alexandria seem to be occupied by people of these various 
nationalities ; for it is a commercial and cosmopolitan city. But the 
Arabic signs indicate to the visitor what is the general language of the 
country, and most of the people he sees on the streets wear Oriental 
dress. The men of the lower class are clad in a long, loose cotton 
wrapper falling* a little below the knees, blue or brown in color, and 
usually wear a loose shirt beneath it ; both garments thrown open at 
the neck, and either sleeveless or with short sleeves ; their feet and legs 
up to the knees being bare. The women wear a long black or dark blue 
xobe covering the head and the whole figure to the feet, and over the face 



* Ezeke 1 . iy. 15, 



6 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



below the eyes the black yeshmak or veil, which is supported by a 
metallic cylinder between the eyes. Ladies of the upper class use a 
white veil, and the supporting cylinder is of gold instead of brass. Their 
outer garment is of black silk ; their arms and ankles laden with gold 
bracelets ; and their feet set in violet velvet slippers. While their hum- 
ble sisters go barefooted, or wear slippers of red or yellow leather 
pointed at the toes, but seldom stockings — often bangles about the 
ankles. But in either case all that is seen of an Egyptian woman's face 
is a pair of dark liquid eyes, that she knows very well how to use. 

The street-scenes that we saw were new and strange. Watter- carriers 
were going about, clinking together a couple of brazen cups to attract 
attention and crying for customers. Some of them carried on the back 
a large brass vessel full of water, and a smaller brass pitcher, from which 
they poured into a cup. Some bore a goat skin or donkey skin, which, 
with the hair outside, the legs tied up, and the neck fitted with a brass 
cock, looks grotesquely bloated, yet life-like. The lemonade-vender 
walked about, carrying his beverage in a glass vessel and clinking his 
cups similarly. Many of the people were very ragged and dirty, and 
sat contentedly on the ground or the curb-stone to rest themselves or 
to sell their wares from baskets. Donkeys abound in the streets, not 
only used as beasts of burden but saddled for riding ; and very useful 
for that purpose, since in some parts of the city the streets are too 
narrow to allow a carriage to pass. These are the native quarters of 
the city, where the upper stories of the houses often project so far be- 
yond the lower that people could almost shake hands with their neigh- 
bors across the alley from their upper windows or lattices of beautifully 
carved wood. Out of these lattices in houses of the better class look 
the ladies of the harem, who seldom walk abroad, but ride donkeys or 
drive in close carriages with a sais or outrunner preceding the horses 
on foot. He is usually a gorgeous creature, dressed in a white tunic to 
the knee, and gold-embroidered vest and white skull-cap, barelegged 
and barefooted, and earring in his hand a long wand. He is young and 
strong and swift, and will run for hours before the fast driven horses of 
the carriage. When in Cairo we saw the Khedive of Egypt taking an 
airing in his barouche, surrounded by handsomely uniformed horse- 
men and preceded by two of these outrunners who cleared the way for 
the cavalcade. 

Alexandria is less an oriental city than Cairo; is more Europeanized r 
and bears in many parts quite a modern aspect ; although, founded by 



ALEXANDRIA. 7 

Alexander the Great whose name it bears, it is more than 2,000 years 
old. Alexander showed excellent judgment m selecting this site for 
his city, and it became the capital of Egypt during the reigns of the 
Ptolemies and the centre of commerce between the East and the West. 
Here the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek by seventy 
scholars, and hence the translation was called " the Septuagint," two 
hundred years B. C. Christianity easily obtained a strong hold here, and 
numbered among its defenders Clement and Origen and Athanasius. 
In its palmy days Alexandria had half a million inhabitants, but under 
Moslem misrule declined till at the beginning of this century it was a 
poor village of only 5,000 population. 

The modern prosperity of the city began in Mohammed All's reign, 
who in 1820 connected it again with the Nile by a canal. In our own 
day the Suez Canal has caused commerce to return to its ancient seats 
on the Mediterranean, and the harbor of Alexandria is now filled with 
shipping, and along its wharves are immense warehouses stored with 
cotton, tobacco, and grain for export and all kinds of imported goods. 
Its newer streets are broad and straight, well paved, and kept scrupu- 
lously clean ; while even in the native quarters we noticed that the 
unpaved streets were swept clean, and that little garbage lay around. 
The Bourse or Stock Exchange is a splendid building ; the Courts 
occupy another nearly as fine; and both look out upon a public square 
worthy in its adornments of a city of 250,000 pop illation. There are 
shops kept by Europeans that have as handsome goods as the shops of 
Rome or Paris. And I am sorry to add, as further proof of the Euro- 
peanized character of the city, that wine-shops and bar-rooms abound 
there as they do in London itself. Eor while wine drinking is forbidden 
by the Koran, the sacred book of the Mohammedans, and few of them 
violate their religion by the use of alcoholic beverages, foreigners indulge 
freely, notwithstanding the danger of the drinking habit in so warm and 
dry a climate. 

We drove one day through the foreign quarter of the city, which 
partly occupies the site of ancient Alexandria, and came to the edge of 
the ancient harbor now so filled with sand that it is not used by vessels. 
We stood on the spot where formerly towered the two obelisks, known 
as Cleopatra's Needles ; though she had nothing to do with their erec- 
tion, as they dated back to the times of the Pharaohs, and were removed 
thither from Heliopolis in Tiberius' day. One of these obelisks we 
have in Central Park, New York ; and its companion stands on the 



8 AD OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

* 

Thames embankment in London. Thence we drove to Pompey's 
Pillar so-called, which was neither constructed by Pompey the Great, 
nor in his honor, but was put up long after his time, in honor of the 
Emperor Diocletian, 296 A. D. It stands on a high piece of ground, 
the highest in the ancient city, and is itself about a hundred feet in 
height. The shaft is a monolith of polished red granite, brought from 
Assouan, near the First Cataract, and is supposed to have formed part 
of some old temple. It rests on a large square pedestal and bears a 
roughly hewn capital of great size. Both pedestal and capital are of 
inferior workmanship, but the shaft is a thing of beauty. Close by is a 
Mohammedan cemetery, whose little oval-shaped tombs are quite as 
unsightly as the stiffly standing headstones of our own ancestral grave- 
yards. 

We took a drive also into the country, along the banks of the Mah- 
moodeah canal, that was constructed by Mohammed Ali to bring water 
from the Nile to Alexandria. This road was once lined with palaces, 
the residences of the bashaws or grandees of Alexandria. Many of 
them were destroyed when the British bombarded the city in 1882 ; but 
some have been rebuilt, and surrounded by beautiful gardens and 
grounds appear like a section of Paradise. We entered the park in 
which stands the villa of a Greek millionaire, Sir J. Antonidis, said to be 
the finest in Egypt. Here magnolias and rubber-trees, enormous ole- 
anders, roses, geraniums, jessamine, and many flowers unknown in our 
land, delighted our eyes with their growth and bloom. One side of the 
house was covered with a luxuriant vine, whose thickly clustering Mag- 
enta-colored blossoms were the most brilliant that I have ever seen on 
climbing vines. An artificial pond and fountain were near the house, 
from which an old man filled a calf's skin and then ran around the 
gravel walks, squirting water from the neck of the skin-bottle to keep 
the dust down. This is the Egyptian substitute for the hose and 
hydrant of our American towns. 

Riding back to the city we noticed how near are splendor and squalor 
here, as in our own cities. On the other side of the canal straggled 
along several wretched villages of the Fellaheen or peasants of Egypt ; 
collections of one story hovels, built m rows out of sun-dried mud and 
thatched with straw. Some of them are square ; some shaped like a 
flattened haystack. Many of them have on top conical pigeon-houses, 
for pigeons are largely raised for the market. In these dens without 
windows or floors, without chairs or tables or beds or other articles of 



ALEXANDRIA. 



9 



furniture, the peasants and their donkeys and chickens live together in 
filth indescribable. As we travelled through Egypt we saw multitudes 
of such villages, and on the upper Nile we walked through two of them, 
and had opportunity to learn just how the people live — or rather, pro- 
long existence — for we can scarcely call it living. 

Their condition is pitiable in the extreme. The land is owned by the 
government or by foreign syndicates, and not only every acre is heavily 
taxed, but every palm-tree besides. Nobody, however poor, can escape 
the tax-gatherer, who penetrates each miserable Arab village and exacts 
the revenue. If any one refuses or is unable to pay, he is bastinadoed 
till his cries move to compassion his poor neighbors, who yield up their 
last piaster and secure his release. The usual wages of a laborer are 
only two piasters or ten cents a day ; so that it can readily be under- 
stood he and his family can hardly do more than keep soul and body 
together in the best of times. When crops fail, nothing remains but 
starvation ; for then the tax-gatherer takes all. The government has 
no mercy ; and until the recent English protectorate there was no jus- 
tice administered in the courts. Judges always decided for the govern- 
ment in matters where it was concerned, and in other matters accord- 
ing to their own pleasure — i. e. according to the bribes offered them. 
In every Arab village the sheikh was a petty tyrant, who could bastinado 
the unhappy fellahs at his will.. While the Khedive was the supreme 
tyrant ; who, if he wished a canal dug or other public work done, would 
send into the villages and conscript as many thousand men as he needed, 
and set them to labor under taskmasters, who wielded over them the 
cruel kourbash or whip of elephant's hide. For the labor thus exacted 
the laborers received no pay and usually not even food; but their 
women, who were left to work the land, brought them bread and rice 
to keep them from starving. It was the old system of the Pharaohs, 
who thus built their pyramids and temples and stately cities by enforced 
labor. 



CHAPTER II. 



Cairo and Its Mosques. 

§fcM?E reached Cairo, the capital of Egypt, by rail from Alexandria 
p VjV ^ in less than four hours -the distance being about 130 miles. 

The broad expanse of Lake Mareotis lay on our right hand for 
some time ; a lake which was made long ago by the British, who, as a 
war measure, cut the bank and let in the sea, submerging thousands of 
acres of once fertile soil. Now that they have so deep a financial inter- 
est in the country, they wish that they had not inflicted so great an in- 
jury upon it. The lake is shallow, and in the early summer much of it 
becomes swamp — a great resort for water-fowl. For a long distance 
the plain is low and level as a table, and seemed to be used only for 
pasturage. Immense numbers of cattle were feeding upon it. Further 
on we saw cultivated ground, and men ploughing with a couple of bul- 
locks or buffaloes joined by a long pole at the neck that kept them wide 
apart. Once I noticed a camel and a bullock hitched up together. 
The plough is a sorry wooden affair with but one handle, and makes 
only a shallow drill in the soft earth. Yet plentiful crops of wheat, rice, 
beans, lentils, cotton and tobacco are raised in this fertile delta of the 
Nile, for a rich black soil is made by the annual overflow of the river. 
In one place where laborers were digging a canal and bringing the mud 
up to the top of the bank in baskets carried on their heads I observed 
that the soil was about fifteen feet deep. The growing fields were green 
and beautiful ; the season being about three months in advance of ours, 
so that the fore part of March was like early June with us ; the air 
warm and delightful, though the sun hot. There were few trees in this 
region, only some date-palms here and there; and no roads, but long 
files of camels and donkeys laden with burdens were going along the 
tow-paths of the canals. 

We crossed both the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile; 



CAIRO AND ITS MOSQUES. 



I I 



stopped at many large towns, where crowds of natives were lounging at 
the railroad stations, perhaps hoping to pick up a job ; and after pass- 
ing Tookh station caught our first glimpse of the Pyramids of Ghizeh, 
opposite Cairo, which made our hearts beat fast with expectation. We 
were agreeably surprised, upon reaching the city and driving to our 
hotel, the comfortable and home-like Hotel d' Angleterae, to find Cairo 
a much finer city than we anticipated. Its population is about half a 
million ; its newer streets are wide and straight, lined with handsome 
modern buildings, and well shaded with trees. Of its public squares the 
Esbekeeyah is the most important, inclosing a large garden or park 
bounded by avenues on which stand public buildings of European solid- 
ity and Oriental gracefulness. The palace of the Khedive, the opera 
house, the French theatre, the banks, the principal hotels, many busi- 
ness houses, and the private residences of the wealthier classes, are a 
revelation to the visitor of the extent of European influence in this Mos- 
lem capital. Gas and electric lights and water mains complete the sur- 
prise. 

While on the other hand the narrow, crooked streets of the native 
quarters, the mud hovels of the poor and the arabesque woodwork on the 
projecting cornices of houses of the better class, and the quaint bazaars 
or shops so small that the proprietor, sitting cross-legged on a rug 
within, can reach nearly all hfs goods with his hands without rising — 
these and the donkeys and camels everywhere threading the streets, and 
the water-carriers and the outrunners preceding the carriages, and the 
veiled women, often carrying a little child astride the shoulder and hold- 
ing on to its mother's head, and the blind beggars persistently crying 
for backsheesh, and the representatives of various Eastern nations clad 
in their differing but always picturesque costumes — these, I say, show 
the visitor that despite European influence Cairo is still an Oriental city 
full of strange sights that interest and fascinate him day after day. 
Where else, indeed, can one see a cow led along the street by a man 
bearing a small vessel, who stops and milks the cow a little when a cus- 
tomer wants a pint of milk, and then leads the cow on to milk her again 
when he meets with another customer? But this is the way that milk 
is served in Cairo 

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the city, however, is its 
mosques, or places of Mohammedan worship, of which there are be- 
tween four and five hundred. It reminds us that Cairo is not one of 
the ancient cities of Egypt, but was built by the Moslems less than a thou- 



I 2 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



sand years ago. Old Cairo, it is true, occupies the site of the Roman 
city or fortress of Babylon, but is not a continuation or outgrowth of it 
When the famous Amru or Amr conquered Egypt for the Caliph Omar 
in 638 A. D., he built the city of Fostat, a little further up the river; 
and this was the Moslem capital, till in 973 it was superseded by a new 
city founded by Jauher. who conquered Egypt for the first Fatimite Ca- 
liph. The new city was originally the camp of Jauher while besieging 
Fostat, and it gradually grew into a town, to which was given the name 
of Al-Kahirah, i. e., the Victorious, whence the name of Cairo. From 
the beginning, therefore, this has been a Mohammedan city, and its 
numerous mosques are of all ages, from the venerable and ruined 
mosque of Amr, built by him in 642, down to the gorgeous mosque of 
Mohammed Ali, that he built in 1829, or down to that one which 
stands unfinished still, opposite the mosque of the Sultan Hassan — the 
money of the donor having given out, as we were told. 

We visited several of these buildings, which are very simple in their 
construction, as the Mohammedan religion has no system of sacrifices, 
no shrines of idols, no processions in their honor, no elaborate liturgy to 
be rendered ; and hence its places of worship require no such ingenious 
planning or varied equipment as heathen temples. First we drove out 
by the Sharia or Avenue Mohammed Ali to the mosque of the Sultan 
Hassan, which was built in 1356, and is regarded as the most beautiful 
in Cairo. It is said that when it was finished the Sultan had the hands 
of the architect cut off, so that the latter should never be able to build 
another to exceed it. Though not so large as the Great Mosque in 
Damascus, nor so rich in costly stones as St. Sophia's in Constantinople, 
it is held to surpass both in design and proportion and grace. Those 
were originally Christian churches, and show evidences of adaptation ; 
but this one was built to be a mosque. And it was built at a time 
when Saracenic art had produced a native architectural style and before 
its subsequent debasement. The great door by which we entered is a 
sumptuous piece of work, as fine in its way as a Gothic portal. We 
came first into a lofty hall, whose ceiling is ornamented with work re- 
sembling stalactites. On the sidewall is a bit of decoration, that called 
forth from our guide the information that the Mohammedans think it 
wrong to make pictures or figures of anything, and so this decoration is 
only a fanciful combination of Arabic letters. Before we entered the 
mosque proper, we had to slip our feet into great yellow slippers, which 
the attendants tied on for us. It is the custom of the Moslems to put 



« 



CAIRO AND ITS MOSQUES. 13 

off their shoes before entering the holy place — perhaps a reminiscence 
of the Lord's command to Moses at the burning bush* — but they com- 
promise with Christian visitors by allowing them to put on the slippers 
over their shoes. Some say that the motive really is to keep the mosque 
clean. 

Then we stepped into a large quadrangular court, open to the sky, 
and paved with marble in small pieces, worn and broken. The quad- 
rangle is more than a hundred feet square, and the walls more than a hun- 
dred feet high. It is constructed with four roofed transepts, each framed 
in by a single arch. In the centre of the court is a fountain with a 
light dome-canopy over it, where the worshippers are required first to 
perform their ablutions. Long chains hang from the ceiling in the 
transepts, from which are suspended lamps that are lighted at festivals. 
One transept is devoted to study ; another is used for preaching on Fri- 
day, which is the Mohammedan sacred day, because they say man was 
made on that day. In this latter transept, which is at the eastern end, 
and is wider and deeper than the others, there is a high staging where 
a man sits cross-legged and reads the Koran aloud, weaving to and fro 
as their custom is. There is a niche or apse at the end of this transept 
which indicates the direction in which Mecca lies ; for the Moham- 
medans always face toward Mecca when they pray. In some mosques, 
if the building does not stand so that they can have the apse point 
towards Mecca, they still put the apse at the end of the building, but 
place the mats obliquely on the floor, so that they show the direction of 
Mecca. By the side of the apse there is a high pulpit with a stairway 
leading up to it ; any one who can read the Koran well may preach. 
Behind this transept is a large hall a hundred feet square, in the centre 
of which is the tomb of the Sultan, who built this mosque. The hall 
was also used as a safety-deposit vault for jewels anc^ money in old times 
when they had no banks. An apse in the end serves the usual purpose. 
The walls are covered with tracery in low relief, and in the four corners, 
high up, are clusters of Arabesque wood-work, like pendent stalactites. 

But all this ornamentation is dilapidated by age, and everything about 
the mosque seems falling into ruin. The marbles of the pavement are 
cracked and discolored, the cupola over the fountain is flaking off, and 
there is a deep fissure in the main wall of the building. The mosque 
is a symbol of the decaying power of Islam, that seems doomed to 
decline, as its own adherents freely admit. Some time in the future, 
when the building has become a ruin, it may be that important infor- 



*Exod. 3:5. 



A D OMIXE IX BIB IE IAXDS. 



mation will be gained from its stones. For these stones were taken 
from the facing of the Great Pyramid, it is said, and doubtless are 
covered with hieroglyphic writing on their inner side, now imbedded in 
the thickness of the walls. Should this writing be deciphered some 
day. the history of ancient Egyptian dynasties before Cheops may be 
recovered. 

From the mosque of the Sultan Hassan we drove to the Citadel on 
a lofty hill a little beyond. There are two entrances to the fort : one 
is by the gate known as the Bal-al-Azab. a magnificent specimen of 
Saracenic architecture. It is in the form of an elliptical arch, with two 
great brick towers constructed in alternate bands of red and white. 
From this gate a narrow winding path leads to the highest part of the 
hill. But we followed the graded carriage road to the other entrance, 
and drove through a long gateway, roofed over with four or five suc- 
cessive domes. We left our carriages in a large court and passed 
through a second court, where we saw British soldiers in their red coats, 
going to and fro : for they are now in possession of the Citadel, which 
they captured after the battle of Tell-el-Kebir, in 1882. We came to 
the celebrated mosque of Mohammed AH, built in the early part of this 
century. It is the most conspicuous object in Cairo, for its tall, slender 
minarets and clustered domes can be seen for miles around. It is a 
costly structure : even its exterior walls are veneered with alabaster. 
First putting on large yellow slippers over our shoes, we entered a 
spacious court, paved with flagging of highly polished marble, and 
enclosed by a row of alabaster columns. In the centre of the court 
there is a graceful canopy over the fountain, which is held in an oval 
basin of marble. Here the faithful wash before they pray, according to 
the requirement of the Koran. Then we entered the mosque proper, 
whose decorations %ire very rich, though some critics call them gaudy 
and commonplace. Costly rugs of beautiful patterns, some of them as 
large as fifty feet square, cover the whole floor. Great chandeliers of 
lamps, two of them a mass of cut glass prisms, depend from the ceil- 
ing, and there are besides four rows of lamps with globes extending 
all around the building. The side-walls are cased with alabaster and 
the pillars, except their upper parts which are painted to imitate 
alabaster. There is a large central dome in the ceiling, surrounded by 
four demi-cupolas, and stained glass windows below these — whose effect 
is very fine. A shallow gallery extends around the building, to which 



CAIRO AND ITS MOSQUES. 



i5 



omen are admitted. In the left hand corner, coming out, one sees a 
golden grating that incloses the tomb of Mohammed Aii. 

Passing again into the court we were shown a well, some sixty or 
seventy feet deep and three or four feet in diameter, from which there 
sounded a delightful musical echo when a few notes were shouted into 
it. We went outside the walls of the building to a corner of the plat- 
form on which it stands to obtain a view of the spot where Mohammed 
Ali murdered the Memlooks in 181 1 to secure his reign. He had in- 
vited these turbulent nobles to the Citadel to witness the ceremony of 
investing one of his sons with military command. After they had taken 
coffee they and their retinues passed in procession down the steep and 
narrow road to the great gate, preceded and followed by the Pasha's 
troops. Suddenly the gate was closed before them, the upper gate 
closed behind them, and the Pasha's troops shot them down like dogs 
in a trap. Of 470 of them only one escaped by leaping his horse from 
the terrace down the precipitous hill. His horse was killed, but he 
alighted uninjured and fled. This massacre was followed by a general 
slaughter of the Memlooks throughout Egypt, and Mohammed Ali 
established his power. 

We returned through the Citadel by way of Joseph's well, as it is 
called; but it certainly was not dug in his day; it was probably sunk 
after the Citadel was built to get a supply of water for the garrison when 
they could not go to the river. It is 290 feet deep and 15 feet in diam- 
eter. There is a wheel at the top by which buffaloes pump up the 
water ; not in use when we saw it. as the Nile was low. We entered 
our carriages again, and drove through many winding streets past gay 
bazaars and shops to the University of Cairo, the principal Mohamme- 
dan college in the world, to which come students of all the different 
sects of Islam everywhere. There are over 10,000 of them, and more 
than 300 teachers. A man teaches a subject, and when the pupils can 
pass examinations they can teach, too, if they like ; and so a multitude 
of classes is formed. The salaries are very small ; in fact, only the chief 
teacher, called the Sheikh-el-Azhar, receives a regular salary of about 
$500 a year ; the other teachers receive such presents as the richer stu- 
dents may give them. Ideas are most readily communicated in the 
Mohammedan world through this institution. If the head man thinks in 
a certain way, soon the professors think so, and then the students think 
so, and ere long the idea finds its way through all the bazaars, and 



i6 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



passes by the caravans from place to place. The University is 900 
years old, but still nourishes as vigorously as ever. 

It was noon when we arrived, and a muezzin was calling to prayer 
from a minaret in front of the University building ; for it is really a 
mosque, called El-Azhar, or the Splendid. We had to wait a few min- 
utes till prayers were over, and then put on the inevitable outside slip- 
pers at the entrance and shuffled across the open court, which was full 
of large wooden lockers like those in our American gymnasiums, where 
the students keep their books and clothes. We went into the building 
—one vast room with stone floor, and roof supported by 400 antique 
columns of marble and porphyry — and found that most of the students 
had gone to lunch. But some classes of young men and boys were 
scattered about, each class at the foot of a column circling about their 
teacher and seated on the matting spread over the pavement, conning 
their books aloud. The Koran is the chief text-book, which they think 
contains about all the knowledge that is worth knowing. Besides this 
they study arithmetic, logic, some geography and medicine. But it is a 
religious education mainly that the students obtain, and they practice 
their religion right there ; for there is an apse in the further end of the 
hall pointing towards Mecca, and a pulpit by its side, and they can study 
and pray by turns. There are no endowments to support them ; they 
live on the charities of the faithful, and when their studies are ended, 
these missionaries of Islam join the caravans going into the interior of 
Africa or the heart of Asia, and carry their fierce fanaticism to all 
quarters. 

These are sights that induce thought about the religion that has 
erected these mosques and founded this University, and shows still so 
much tenacity of life, despite the decay of the political power that it 
once wielded. It is one of the great religions of the world, numbering 
from 170 to 180,000,000 adherents — i. e. about one-eighth of the popu- 
lation of the globe. Nearly all of Africa that is not Pagan is Moham- 
medan. In Asia this religion of the False Prophet prevails in Palestine 
and Syria, and the provinces of Turkey in Asia, and Arabia, and Persia, 
and Turkistan, and Afghanistan, and divides with Hinduism the multi- 
tudes of India, and spreads out into the Malayan Archipelago. And it 
is a religion whose believers are very much in earnest ; zealots they are, 
who run their faith into bigotry, intolerant towards other religions and 
eager to proselyte. Though they can no longer send out armies to 
overrun other lands and convert nations by the sword as they once did, 



CAIRO AND ITS MOSQUES. 



they still keep up an active propaganda, training and dispatching mis- 
sionaries, who in India and Africa make many converts from idolatry. 
There are also elements of truth in their religion, such as the cardinal 
doctrine of one God, an infinite and spiritual Being, and the doctrines 
of repentance, of praver, and of a future judgment — besides a teaching 
of many moral duties — which make their religion vastly preferable to 
those degraded systems of idolatry that it supplants. 

But when we compare it with Christianity, we see how fatally defect- 
ive it is. It offers no atonement for sin, no Saviour, no assurance of 
forgiveness. Its idea of God is not that of a Father in heaven, but the 
idea of the Awful and Invisible and Inexorable, whose immutable will 
orders all things, but is without tenderness and love. It is a system of 
fatalism, and hence one of cruelty. It makes its adherents unmerciful, 
fosters despotism, upholds slavery, crushes woman by its polygamy and 
licentiousness, pushes the weak and unfortunate to the wall. Moham- 
medanism has no place in it for love to God or man. How grand the 
contrast that Christianity presents to such a religion, and how precious 
are the privileges that we enjoy in the teachings of our gracious 
Saviour ! 



2 



CHAPTER III. 
The Pyramids. 

T was in the cool, bright morning of a perfect day that we started 
m carriages from our hotel in Cairo for the ride of nine miles to 
the edge of the Western desert to visit the Great Pyramid. For- 
merly it was a hard day's journey to go and return, as one must ride on 
a donkey or camel, and cross the river in boats ; and when the country 
was inundated, one had to go miles around. But all that is changed 
now. We drove out by the Sharia (or Avenue) Kasr-el-Nil, and crossed 
the river by a fine iron bridge that the Khedive has built ; on either end 
of which are two seated lions in stone, one on each side of the bridge. 
Then we struck into a boulevard, raised high above the surrounding 
fields so as never to be overflowed, and bordered by large acacia-trees, 
which make a pleasant shade and a lovely vista to look through. This 
boulevard was constructed by the Khedive for the use of the Prince of 
Wales, when he visited Egypt in 1868, and the trees then planted have 
since grown to large dimensions. Several other similar avenues lined 
with trees branch out in various directions, making delightful drives for 
wealthy natives and foreigners ; many of whom we met on our return 
late in the afternoon, driving out in style. In the morning we met long 
files of camels and donkeys coming into the city with loads of green 
grass for fodder, and vegetables for the market, and some curious little 
wagons or trucks on very small wheels and drawn by donkeys, contain- 
ing produce of different kinds. 

Passing through Ghizeh, where the Khedive's summer-palace and the 
Boulak Museum are situated, we entered upon a straight stretch of road 
which showed the pyramids looming up before us. The view of them 
from this point is disappointing, as is the first glimpse one gains of them 
from the car- windows in coming by rail from Alexandria. The familiar 
triangular forms look small and obscure, and do not impress one with 




THE PYRAMIDS. 



19 



their real greatness. This is because of their slope — a smaller perpen- 
dicular mass seems to soar more loftily and to strike the imagination 
more — and because there are no high objects near, against which to 
measure them with the eye. But when after an hour and a half's ride 
we had climbed the long sand-slope at the end of the carriage- road, and 
had reached the rocky plateau about forty feet above the surrounding 
plain on which the Great Pyramid stands, and had alighted and looked 
up at the majestic bulk towering above our heads and shutting out the 
very sky — the effect was overwhelming. We felt that we were in the 
presence of the mightiest structure man has ever reared on the earth. 

Perhaps a few figures may assist the reader's appreciation. This 
pyramid covers eleven acres, a space nearly as large as Washington 
Park in New York city. Its base is a perfect square, each side of which 
is 732 feet long. Its perpendicular height was formerly 480 feet, but 
in consequence of the casing stones having been torn away to build 
Arab mosques and palaces about thirty feet of the top are gone, and a 
platform thirty feet square is found at the summit. It is not a hollow 
building, but practically a solid mass of stone, since the chambers and 
passages discovered within are but 1-2, oooth of the whole ; and it has 
been calculated that its blocks of stone placed end to end would make 
a wait a foot and a half broad and ten feet high around England, a dis- 
tance of 883 miles. Herodotus tells us it took a hundred thousand 
men twenty years to build it ; Pliny says, three hundred thousand men. 

But figures cannot convey the impression of its size and height and 
solidity that we gained by ascending it and penetrating its interior. As 
soon as we left our carriages we were encompassed by a crowd of push- 
ing, clamoring, gesticulating Arabs, who tried each one to secure charge 
of an individual to take into the pyramid. Deafened by their yells and 
startled by the fierce eagerness with which they grasped us by the arm, 
we thought for awhile we should be torn in pieces. But the Sheikh 
with whom our conductor negotiated terms — three English shillings to 
be paid to him for each tourist and further fees for the assistance of his 
men — soon straightened things out. He selected the assistants, beat 
back the other Arabs with his stick, and we started in through a hole 
about forty feet above the base on the northern side ; each tourist with 
two Arabs, one of them going before with a bit of candle to illumine 
the way and the other Arab grasping the tourist firmly by the hand. 

Evidently this pyramid was not designed to be entered. If it had 
been, it would have had a lofty and imposing gate-way, as have the 



20 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



temples of Upper Egypt. But it was not a temple or place of worship ; 
nor were its chambers made for places of assembly for the friends of the 
buried monarch, such as are attached to many tombs in Egypt. The 
chambers are too small for that purpose, and besides, the only entrance 
to them is through the narrow passage by which we went in, and that 
was originally walled up so that its exterior looked just like the rest of 
the pyramid. Whether the structure was intended to be a tomb, or, as 
some say, to preserve its testimony to certain truths to the end of time, 
its secret was sealed up till accident discovered the entrance about a 
thousand years ago. The Caliph El-Mamoon in 820 A. D., supposing 
that the Great Pyramid had been built as a storehouse for the treasures 
of the Pharaohs, attempted to break into it ; but after working for 
months to pierce the solid sides was about to give up in despair, when 
the accidental falling of a stone led to the discovery of the passage by 
which access is now gained to the interior. 

This passage we found very low and narrow, so that we had to go in 
one at a time, and in a painfully stooping posture. It is only three and 
a half feet wide and four feet high. Moreover it descends at an angle 
of 26 degrees, and its floor is so smooth and slippery that one could not 
stand on it but for the little places that have been hollowed out for the 
feet and but for the help of the strong arm of the Arab guide. *The 
passage leads down to a subterranean chamber some 330 feet from the 
entrance, and perhaps 90 feet below the base of the pyramid, cut in the 
rock on which the pyramid is built. This chamber is 46 feet long and 
27 feet wide, and of irregular height; it was evidently left unfinished. 
We did not descend however as far as this chamber; but about sixty 
feet from the entrance we took an ascending passage leading toward the 
centre of the pyramid. This corridor, having about the same breadth 
and height as the other and inclining at the same angle, was once closed 
up with an immense block or boulder of stone, around which an exca- 
vation has been made. We partly crept, partly were lifted, over these 
obstructions, and having ascended for no feet, stifled with the close air 
and choking with the dust, we reached the Grand Gallery, as it is called 
— 28 feet high, 7 feet wide and 156 feet long — ascending still at the 
same angle as the narrow corridor. It was a great relief to straighten 
oneself after being doubled up so long ; and one could not but admire 
the stately proportions of this splendid gallery. Just at its beginning is 
the Well so-called, an irregular shaft or pit leading to the lower portion 
of the first or descending passage. Some think it was made to afford 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



21 



an exit to the workmen who had been closing up the ascending passage. 
Our Arabs were very careful that we should not fall down this Well. 

We climbed up the Great Gallery, which at the end dwindled into a 
smaller horizontal one 22 feet long, and then we entered a chamber 
called the King's chamber, because supposed to have been prepared for 
the King's sepulchre. It measures 34 x 17 feet and is 19 feet high, 
wainscoted and ceiled with handsome red granite that glistened in the 
strong glare we threw upon it by lighting a magnesium wire. The only 
article in this chamber is a lidless sarcophagus of red granite, so large 
that it could not have been brought in through the passages we had 
traversed, but must have been built in. If Chufu or Cheops, the second 
Pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, who constructed this pyramid, designed 
it to be his tomb, this sarcophagus was put here to receive his mummy. 
Yet no mummy was ever found in it so far as we have any record. 
Perhaps Arab body-snatchers removed it, as they have removed so 
many mummies from the tombs- But Prof. Piazzi Smyth, the Astrono- 
mer Royal of Scotland, in his book entitled " Our Inheritance in the 
Great Pyramid," has argued that the sarcophagus was not intended for 
a tomb, but to preserve a fixed standard of measures, such as was 
divinely given to Moses. It is remarkable that this oblong chest of 
stone is just the size of the Ark of the Covenant. And the Professor 
thinks it accomplishes the arithmetical feat of squaring the circle ; the 
height being to the circumference of the base as the radius is to the 
circumference of a circle. 

We came out from the King's chamber, and descending the Grand 
Gallery, which we illuminated with magnesium light, we found at its foot 
a horizontal passage scarcely four feet high and three and a half feet 
wide that we followed for no feet, till we entered what is called the 
Queen's chamber. This is 18 x 17 feet, and has a pointed ceiling 20 
feet high. The room has nothing in it, and its purpose is quite 
unknown. By this time the smoke and the smell from the lights we 
had burned made the confined air almost intolerable, though there are 
air-flues that are supposed to ventilate the chambers. We were glad to 
creep out of the pyramid by the way we came in, holding on to our 
strong and faithful Arab guides, and drew a long breath when we 
emerged into the pure, bracing air outside. 

Then joined by some of our party who had not ventured within, we 
undertook to scale the pyramid on its north-eastern corner. This is 
not a difficult task for a person of light weight and long limbs, especially 



22 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



when he has two Arabs to assist in pulling him up. But for a short, fat 
person it is a via dolorosa, and some of our party had a hard time 
getting up. The outer, smooth casing having long ago been removed 
from the pyramid, the blocks of stone lie in courses one above another ; 
but the blocks being of various sizes, a person has to make a step now 
two feet high, again three feet, and sometimes the step is four feet high, 
and the Arabs must pull mightily and occasionally boost the unhappy 
tourist, who fears that his arms will be dislocated, or gets a pain in his 
side, or grows dizzy with the unaccustomed height. I got along nicely 
■with the assistance of my one stout Arab, Abdou Hassan. My other 
Arab, old Hamiss Omar, said that he had broken his arm and it was 
weak, and he gave me no help ; but he tried to do his part by enter- 
taining me all the way up with conversation, in which he aired his 
broken English very complacently. 

When we reached the top, a platform about thirty feet square, a 
wonderful view rewarded us for our toil. The air is so clear, the country 
so flat, and one's standpoint so isolated, that the prospect is more 
extensive than that gained from some mountains that are much higher 
than the pyramid. The first thing that strikes the eye, because of its 
nearness and its bulk, is the Pyramid of Chephren, the brother of 
Cheops, and belonging, like him, to the fourth dynasty, 3600 or 3700 
B. C. It is only about a quarter of a mile distant, and is the next 
largest in size to the one on which we stood. Its base-line is 690 feet 
and its height 447 feet ; and being steeper than the Great Pyramid, 
actually looks larger from certain points of observation. It is very 
difficult to ascend, on account of its steepness, and because for about a 
fourth of the distance from its summit the ancient polished casing is 
still in place. Yet as we sat looking at it one of our Arabs offered, if 
we would make up a purse for him, to run down the Great Pyramid 
and across the intervening space to the Pyramid of Chephren and up to 
its top in ten minutes. We agreed to give him five shillings if he did it j 
and the nimble-footed fellow accomplished the feat in nine minutes by 
our watches. It was startling to see him surmount the dizzy height, 
against which he looked so small, yet he did it with apparent ease, and 
descended in safety to claim his backsheesh. 

There is a third pyramid beyond that of Chephren, built by King 
Menkaura or Mycerinus, as the Greeks called him, and believed to 
have been enlarged by Queen Nitocris of the sixth dynasty. It was well 
constructed and costly, but much smaller than the other two ; being 354 



THE PYRAMIDS. 



*3 



feet square at the base and 203 feet in height. In it a modern explorer 
discovered a sarcophagus, which was sent to England, but was lost at 
sea with the vessel transporting it. He also found a wooden mummy- 
case bearing the name of King Menkaura, and a mummy — both of 
which are now in the British Museum. 

Besides these three large pyramids there are six smaller ones in the 
vicinity — probably the tombs of near relatives of the kings who built the 
large ones. They are much dilapidated and excite no particular inter- 
est. The space all around these pyramids is filled with tombs, some 
built up of stone, some excavated in the native rock ■ many of them 
having chapels connected with them, whose walls are decorated with 
remarkable painted sculptures, portraying the everyday life of the Egyp- 
tians in that remote age. It is one vast burial-field in the foreground ; 
but looking further away one obtains a glorious view. Eastward flows 
the beneficent Nile, bordered by rich cultivated fields that extend to the 
Mokattam hills on the horizon ; at whose foot lies Cairo with its glit- 
tering domes, surmounted by the citadel and the mast-like minarets of 
the Mosque of Mohammed Ali. Northward spread the graceful palm- 
groves and meadows, and gardens of the fertile Delta, as far as one can 
see ; and rising among them five miles away, is the rounded hill that 
they call the Pyramid of Abu Roash — quite ruined now, but interesting 
because much older than these pyramids of Ghizeh. West and south 
rolls the desert ; a restless sea of sand broken by ridges of rock and 
mounds of demolished masonry. 

Seven or eight miles south can be seen the group of pyramids known 
as those of Abooseer, four in number ; the largest of them being only 
about the size of the third pyramid of Ghizeh. Two miles further south 
are the pyramids of Sakkarah; the largest and most noteworthy of 
which is called the Step Pyramid, because built in six terraces, towering 
up from a base 351 x 394 feet to a height of 197 feet. It was built by 
King Uenephes, the fourth king of the first dynasty, and is believed to 
be the oldest monument in Egypt or in the world. The burial-place of 
the ancient city of Memphis lay around these pyramids, and the site of 
the city itself is a little further east. But not a vestige now remains of 
Memphis ;* its very ruins have disappeared, having been used to build 
that early Arabic city of Fostat, on the opposite bank of the Nile, which 
preceded Cairo. Five miles south of the Step Pyramid begin the pyra- 
mids of Dahshoor, two of them of stone and three of brick. The stone 

* See Jer. 46; 19. 



24 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



ones are larger than any of the other pyramids, except those of Chufu 
and Chephren. And still further south is the blunt-topped pyramid of 
Medum, built by King Seneferu, in three stages of 70, 20 and 25 feet. 
He was either the last king of the third dynasty or the first king of the 
fourth dynasty, and lived B. C. 3766. Only within the last few years 
this tomb-monument has been thoroughly explored by Mr. Flinders 
Petrie. One of his discoveries is that the stonecutters of five thousand 
years ago used both solid and tubular drills, circular as well as straight 
saws, and other tools which we have considered as solely cf modern 
manufacture. 

But having seen these wonders from our lofty perch we descended 
with regret. I found it somewhat harder to go down than go up, and 
was obliged to rest awhile when half-way down. On reaching the ground 
I learned that all but one gentleman of our party had gone on to view 
the Sphinx, a quarter of a mile away, and to take luncheon in the 
adjoining Temple of the Sphinx. So this friend and I finding some 
saddled camels in waiting, chartered each of us a camel to try the 
novelty of a camel ride. This scornful beast, who carries his nose up in 
the air in a supercilious way, always seems to resent the indignity of 
being made to kneel down to take on his burden ; and he groans fear- 
fully as though in a rage. When he gets up, the rider must beware or 
he will be thrown off ; for the camel has many joints in his legs, and he 
has a fashion of straightening them out one after another which some- 
times brings torture to a novice. But fortunately I had observed the 
process before and knew what to do ; and then too I had stirrups. My 
camel turned out to be an easy-riding beast, and I even trotted without 
discomfort up to the head of the Sphinx. 

This mysterious monument is older than the Great Pyramid; nobody 
knows when or by whom it was erected, nor what was its significance. 
There are many similar though much smaller sphinxes in Upper Egypt ; 
hundreds of them lined the avenues of approach to the temples. They 
have generally been supposed to represent royalty — wisdom combined 
with physical strength — as they consist of a man's head set upon the 
body of a lion couchant. Some sphinxes however have the head of a 
ram instead of a man's head. According to an inscription at Edfoo, 
they originally symbolized the conflict of the god Horus with the evil 
spirit Typhon, when to avenge the death of Osiris, Horus assumed the 
shape of a lion with a man's head, and slew the enemy. But of all 
sphinxes there is none to compare in size and grandeur to this one near 



THE PYRAMIDS. 25 

the Great Pyramid. Its body is carved out of the natural rock, some 
defects of which are supplied by a partial stone-casing, and the paws 
are also built up of hewn stone. Its length is variously given from 140 
to 188 feet. The head is carved out of the solid rock and measures 
thirty feet from brow to chin, and fourteen feet across. Its features are 
much mutilated, yet wear an expression of winning majesty. Between 
its paws, which are fifty feet in length, there is a sanctuary that was 
excavated some years ago, but is now filled again by the shifting sands, 
where once offerings were made to the divinity represented by the image. 
It faces the sun -rising, like the twin Colossi of Thebes, and it watches 
in silence and mystery the mutations that centuries and milleniums bring. 

From the Sphinx we returned to gaze again upon the Great Pyramid, 
shining like a. mass of gold in the afternoon sun. Was it, we queried, 
merely a tomb like other pyramids? Or was it, as Prof. Piazzi Smyth 
and others have thought, put up to preserve such scientific and religious 
knowledge as had been revealed in that early age of the world, and 
whioji anticipated much that has since been attained? Some adopting 
the latter view have given us a considerable body of what has been 
termed " Pyramid Literature." They believe that this hoary monument 
even contained prophecy of the Christ, witnessing both to His first and 
second advents ; so that it stands for our instruction, " Upon whom the 
ends of the world are come." * And they claim that Isaiah referred to 
it when he said,f " In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the 
midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the 
Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of 
Hosts in the land of Egypt." Of course the pyramid was built thou- 
sands of years before Isaiah's time, but its design and meaning, it is 
claimed, were not discovered till our modern period, so that only now 
it has become "a sign and a witness unto the Lord of Hosts," as the 
prophet said that it would be. 

Certainly the Great Pyramid shows some remarkable features. Its 
four sides face exactly the four points of the compass, and it stands 
exactly on the thirtieth parallel of latitude. This must have been by 
design, not accident. It has also been shown that the pyramid stands 
in the centre of the land-surface of the world ; that taking the sacred 
cubit as the unit of measure, there are in each side of the structure just 
365 \ cubits, corresponding to the number of days in the year, and giving 
the six hours over ; and that the entering passage points directly toward 



* I Cor. 10: 11. 



f Isa 19: 19, 20. 



26 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



the star which was the North Star thousands of years ago. It is claimed 
too that an exact standard of lineal measure is preserved in the building, 
and that it offers a measure for determining the distance of the earth 
from the sun. Surely those ancient Egyptians had made no small pro- 
gress in arithmetical and astronomical knowledge ; unless we believe 
with Prof. Smyth that the pyramid was constructed by divine inspira- 
tion, perhaps by Melchisedec, and embodied a divine revelation of 
scientific matters. 

But he believed also that it has a prophetic character; that the differ- 
ent passages and chambers were symbolic of the different economies of 
God's dealing with men. The descending passage thus represents the 
decadence of mankind to the time of the Flood, or to the exodus of the 
Israelites; the narrow ascending passage is the Jewish dispensation; the 
Grand Gallery the Christian dispensation, and its dwindling end a tran- 
sition-period of tribulation and evil preceding the Second Advent of our 
Lord. Here it seems to me we are offered only fanciful speculations, 
and I feel the less inclined to accept them as true, since their learned 
author undertakes by counting the pyramid inches in these galleries to 
predict the date of our Lord's coming. 

So far as Isaiah's supposed reference to the Great Pyramid is con- 
cerned, I think that the best explanation of his prophecy is not that 
which looks for any particular material structures in fulfillment, but that 
which regards the altar and the pillar as a metaphorical description of 
the future prevalence of the true religion in Egypt. The language is 
naturally borrowed from Old Testament institutions, in which the altar 
appears not only for sacrifice, but sometimes " for a sign and a witness," 
and the pillar appears as a memorial of deliverance. Like those struc- 
tures which Jacob erected in Bethel, Joshua on the bank of the Jordan, 
and the two and a half tribes on their side of the river. It was appro • 
priate that the predicted conversion of the land so filled with temples 
and obelisks should be portrayed under the figure of an altar and a pillar 
erected to the Lord. 

But while doubting thus the prophetic character ascribed to the Great 
Pyramid, we may grant its scientific value ; it is a monument to the 
wisdom of those ancient Egyptians. And hence it is in a sense a monu- 
ment to Him who gives men the faculties to acquire such wisdom. 
Pointing towards the unclouded sky, it points us to Him who lives and 
reigns above the sky. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Up the Nile to Luxor. 



,HERE is no river in the world so fascinating as the Nile. Its 
sources, if known to the ancients, were a mystery to the modern 
world till determined by the explorations of our own day ; and 
imagination now finds in the great lake Victoria Nyanza a fit origin of 
so mighty a stream. Its course of 3,300 miles to the sea, the last 1,200 
miles of which it is unfed by any tributaries, and the volume of water it 
pours into the Mediterranean, after all the diminution it has suffered by 
evaporation in the desert and by diversion into countless irrigating 
canals in Egypt, impress one with its magnificent power. And its recla- 
mation of arid wastes of sand and transformation of them into one of 
the most fertile regions of the globe seem to show an almost intelligent 
beneficence. Its touch is that of the conjurer's wand. Wherever its 
waters are conducted by canals and ditches vegetation thrives ; all else 
is desert. Egypt, as has often been said, is " the gift of the river Nile," 
a mere strip of alluvial soil bordering the river on either side, varying 
from half a mile to thirty miles in width, and averaging perhaps five or 
six miles, while beyond this narrow strip stretches a vast desert both 
east and west. 

Yet the historical associations of the Nile are even more enchanting 
than its natural features. On its banks was developed the oldest civili- 
zation of the world, some of whose massive and enduring monuments 
we can still study to-day. From the pyramids of Ghizeh up to the rock- 
tombs of Thebes, and still above to the temples of Philae and Aboo 
Simbel, a succession of these wonderful remains of antiquity invite the 
exploration of the traveller. While he passes the sites of long buried 
cities once celebrated for their achievements, and spots made memor- 
able by struggles for supremacy. The whole course of the river is con- 
nected with the most interesting traditions of a venerable past. 



^8 A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

But of all the great events that have occurred upon its banks, nothing 
ever occurred there so fraught with interest to all subsequent genera- 
tions of mankind as the act of a Hebrew mother once, in placing upon 
the bosom of the stream the basket of rushes that contained her babe.* 
For this child, who had been preserved alive three months, despite the 
cruel command of Pharaoh (probably Seti I, the father of Rameses the 
Great), and who was now thus strangely exposed by his mother, or rather 
thrown in faith upon the care of Providence, was Moses the Deliverer 
of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, and not only their Law- 
giver, but Law-giver also to the whole Christian world of to-day, and to 
a certain extent to the Mohammedan world as well. Discovered by 
Pharaoh's daughter, who came with her maidens to bathe in the river, 
and rescued and adopted by her, Moses became a Prince in Egypt ; 
"learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty in words and 
in deeds."! And when it pleased God to call him to his great work, he 
wrote his name indelibly upon the history of the race. 

The spot where, according to tradition, this little ark of papyrus 
rested, is at the upper end of the island of Rhoda — an island in the 
river opposite old Cairo. Of course we went to see it. We drove 
through the shabby, dirty streets of old Cairo, which lies a little south 
of modern Cairo, past quaint houses with upper stories projecting over 
the street, and furnished with curiously carved woo'den lattices, instead 
of glass windows, till we came to the river. There we embarked in a 
flat-bottomed scow without seats, in which we stood up while the boat- 
men rowed us across an arm of the Nile to the island. We walked 
through a winding alley that led us between rows of houses to a pretty 
garden of orange-trees then in blossom. Crossing the garden we came 
to a red-painted building on the south-east corner of the island, which 
seemed to be a summer-house, and which is said to stand on the place 
where the sheltering flags once grew by the river's brink. No longer 
is it the rural and unfrequented locality that it must have been when 
those high-born ladies resorted to it ; but we thought, if this spot has 
been correctly preserved in memory, how happy must be the owner of 
this property, about which cluster associations of so much interest. 

Close by the summer-house and the orange-grove is situated the 
Nilometer, a thousand years old, that measures the height of the river. 
It is a stone column standing in a deep square pit, on this upper end of 
the island, and the river runs into the pit so as to show its height on the 



IJxod. 2 : 3. 



fActs 7: 22. 



UP THE NILE TO LUXOR. 



29 



column. The guage serves an important purpose. For the crops in 
Egypt depend upon the annual flooding of the lands by the river, which 
at once irrigates and fertilizes them with the sediment it spreads. The 
Nile shows the first signs of rising, in Egypt,, about the time of the sum- 
mer solstice, June 21; but the inundation does not begin till two 
months later, and attains its greatest height at the autumnal equinox, 
Sept. 21. Then the water begins to fall again. At Cairo the flood 
should be sixteen cubits or twenty-four feet high to be sufficient ; if it is 
less than that it is reckoned scanty, and the crops will fail. While if the 
flood is more than twenty-seven feet high, it is excessive and produces 
plague. Taxes are laid on the people by the government according to 
the height of the Nile, since this indicates what the the crops will be 
and what taxation therefore the people can stand. Formerly the taxes 
were often laid fraudulently without regard to the Nilometer, which the 
people were not allowed to examine. But now, under the British Pro- 
tectorate, any one can go and see it for himself, and verify the state- 
ments of the government. There is another Nilometer on the Elephan- 
tine Island, opposite Assouan, in Upper Egypt, said to be 2,000 years 
old ; and still another on the island of Philae, further up the river. 

It was our purpose to ascend the Nile 450 miles above Cairo to visit 
the tombs and temples of ancient Thebes. Formerly the mode of 
travel was by flat-bottomed boats called dahabeeyahs, adapted either 
for sailing or rowing, and tourists usually spent a couple of months upon 
the round trip. People of abundant leisure and means who are spend- 
ing the whole winter in Egypt and students of archaeology or architec- 
ture who desire time to make a thorough study of Egyptian monuments, 
still charter their dahabeeyahs, engage a reis, or captain, and his crew, 
lay in a store of provisions and sail with the wind or track against the 
current or row or drift, as the case may be, for many weeks of sweet 
idleness. But the tourist whose time is limited finds in the swift little 
steamers that now ply the Nile a preferable method of transportation. 
Or better still he thinks the railroad, which the Khedive has construc- 
ted with English capital, and which is already completed for more than 
300 miles up the river, and is ultimately to be extended to the First 
Cataract, and perhaps to Khartoum, in the distant Soudan — to which 
extends now the telegraph line that runs alongside the railroad. 

We determined to travel by railroad, as far as it went, to shorten the 
time. So we started in the train from Cairo at eight o'clock one morn- 
ing and settled ourselves for the long journey of thirteen and a half 



A DOMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



hours to Sohag, where we were to take a steamer for the remainder of 
the trip. Having crossed the river and headed southward, we obtained 
a good view of the pyramids of Ghizeh on the west, while on the east 
of the Nile we saw the hills where the stone was quarried to build them. 
It is a limestone, pure white when freshly cut, but the outer surface of 
the rocky hills is tawny or orange-colored, like the pyramids. Probably 
the great blocks used in the construction of the latter were floated over 
the river at the height of its inundation. Beyond, on the west bank, 
we saw the various groups of pyramids that have been mentioned, 
those of Abooseer and Sakkarah and Dahshoor, and the site of ancient 
Memphis, that was founded by Menes the first king of the first dynasty. 
It is marked only by mounds in a vast cultivated tract, arid of its grand 
temple there remain but a few blocks of stone and some broken statues. 
One is a colossus of the famous Rameses II, that was forty feet high, 
but has lain till recently upon its face in a hollow, which for most of the 
year was a puddle of dirty water. It was presented by Mohammed Ali 
to the British Government ; and now at last the Royal Engineers have 
raised it from the hole in which it ignobly reposed, and it will probably, 
some day, be removed to England. 

I was much interested in this long day's ride in observing the country 
and the people. The former was green with growing crops and pas- 
turage for cattle, of which we saw great numbers — as also of sheep and 
goats. No fences anywhere separate the fields, but their bounds are 
marked by stone-posts ; a fashion followed by the Israelites when they 
settled in Canaan, as is suggested in Moses' admonition, "Thou shalt 
not remove thy neighbour's landmark " * — and in the Proverbs, " Re- 
move not the old landmark."! The land is mostly owned by the Khe- 
dive and wealthy Pashas and syndicates of bondholders, as it has been 
hypothecated to secure the bonds. The Fellaheen or peasants own no 
land, but are the laborers, living in miserable villages, built of sun-dried 
brick, and daubed outside with a smooth coating of mud. How they 
build, we saw for ourselves, in one place where natives were at work 
upon a building ; laying the brick and using the right hand for a trowel 
to smooth the soft mud, which they had for mortar. 

It was a numerous population that we saw ; the men mostly busy in 
the fields, ploughing, digging, gathering sugar-cane and loading it on 
camels, and driving them to the immense sugar factories that the Khe- 
dive has built in many of the large towns, such as Maghaga and Minieh. 



* Deut. 19 : 14. 



f Prov. 23 : 10. 



UP THE NILE TO LUXOR. 



3 



The women were everywhere carrying jars of water on their heads, from 
the river or canal, to their hovels ; not usually veiled like their sisters in 
Lower Egypt, and almost always barefooted, but well formed and erect 
in carriage. One characteristic occupation throughout the country 
deserves more extended description — that of irrigation. Since nothing 
can be raised without water, it must be brought to the land at seasons 
when the river does not overflow. This is done commonly by a simple 
and rude apparatus, called the shadoof, as old as the time of Moses, at 
least, for it is depicted on the walls of tombs at Thebes It is like an 
old-fashioned well-sweep ; consisting of a long pole made heavy at the 
lower end by a mass of dried mud, and resting on a pivot set in an 
upright beam fastened in the ground ; while from the upper end of the 
pole hangs a bucket or water tight basket, made of goat-skin. This 
stands on the bank, at right angles to the river. A man clad with only 
a strip of cloth about his loins, pulls the bucket down into the river and 
fills it, and then as the heavy end of the pole goes down he empties the 
bucket into a gutter or trough, whence it flows back into the fields. 
When the bank of the river is high, a second or even a third shadoof is 
used — one above another. The lowermost man empties his bucket into 
a little pool made in the side of the bank ; a second man dips it up and 
throws the water into a second pool higher up ; and the third raises it 
to the level of the fields. Labor is cheap • the shadoof-worker earns 
only two piaster or ten cents for a day's work of nine hours, in the broil- 
ing sun. Sometimes the shadoof is superseded by the more elaborate 
and expensive sakieh, which is a water-mill, with cogged wheels, turned 
by a couple of buffaloes, each revolution of the wheel bringing up a 
series of earthen vessels that empty themselves into a trough or pool. 
And sometimes the method of raising water is more primitive than the 
shadoof even. Two men stand in the river or canal, holding a bucket 
between them, which they swing as regularly as clock-work, dipping the 
water up and throwing it on the bank into a pool, where another man 
directs it to its place. All the way up the river we saw this monoto- 
nous work of irrigation going on. 

At each railroad station where we stopped there would be a crowd of 
natives ; some selling oranges, dates, cakes, peanuts, etc. ; some piti- 
able and loathsome beggars in rags, often exhibiting to us their fingers 
eaten away by leprosy to excite the compassion of the Howadjis, as 
they call Europeans ; some waiting to take the train, and some curiously 
gazing at us as upon a show offered for their entertainment. We were 



3 2 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



equally entertained with them, and would get out at each station and 
walk up and down the platform to see the crowd. At noon we opened 
our lunch-baskets that we brought with us and made a substantial meal 
that sustained us through the hot and dusty afternoon. For the fine 
dust from the desert penetrated the car. though we kept the windows 
shut ■ our clothing was yellow with it, and eyes, noses, ears and mouths 
were full of Egypt. The afternoon passed more slowly than the morn- 
ing, and we were glad when, about six o'clock, we reached Siout, a con- 
siderable city of some 20.000 people and the capital of Upper Egypt, 
when we took a second lunch. That carried us through the evening, 
till at 9.30 we reached Sohag, and leaving the train walked through the 
sand a third of a mile to our steamboat waiting for us at the bank. We 
had dinner, and afterwards spent an hour on deck in the cool evening 
air, admiring the brilliant stars of an Egyptian sky, so much more nu- 
merous and luminous than those at home. 

Our little steamer was arranged much like a dahabeeyah. The state- 
rooms, however, were below deck in the after part of the vessel, in- 
stead of being on deck, which was used by the crew and for cooking 
purposes. There was also an upper deck, reached by two stairways, 
that was the exclusive territory of the passengers. The rear portion of 
it was enclosed by awnings and furnished with rugs and easy-cushioned 
sofas, and this was our drawing room, where we lounged and read and 
talked and looked at the landscape, while the cool breeze swept de- 
lightfully through. On the forward part of this upper deck was built 
the dining saloon, with wooden sides and ceiling and windows that could 
be tightly closed, not to keep out rain, which never falls in Upper 
Egypt, but to keep out the sand-storms — about which, more presently. 
We spent a week on this vessel, travelling only by day, according to the 
custom on the Nile j for on account of the danger of running aground 
on the sand-bars, all vessels tie up at the town they happen to reach 
before sun-set, and wait for next day. 

We found boat-life a charming contrast to the heat and dust of our 
railroad ride. The river here is fuller than it is in Lower Egypt, because 
so much of the water is drawn off into canals further down. It varies 
from half a mile to three-quarters of a mile in width, and floats a great 
deal of shipping — steamers, sailing vessels laden with freight, and daha- 
beeyahs gay with flags and streamers. Many of these attracted our 
notice, but the scenery we never tired of looking at \ though there was 
a sameness about it, there was also a novelty in the semi-tropical vege- 



UP THE NILE TO LUXOR. 



33 



tation that held the attention. It was a highly cultivated country that 
we sailed through ; every foot of soil in this narrow Nile valley is pre- 
cious, and must be made the most of to support so large a population. 
Out to the desert, on either side, stretched the verdant fields of wheat 
and rye and beans and lentils and peas, and the plantations of sugar- 
cane in various stages of growth ; and interspersed among them were 
groves of the graceful date-palm, and d6m-palms, and acacias, and 
mimosas, from which the so-called gum arabic is procured. The lime- 
stone cliffs that bounded the view on the east side of the river appeared 
very near, though in reality several miles away; for the clear atmos- 
phere of Egypt, like that of our Colorado, is very deceptive as to dis- 
tances. The cliffs on the west side were further off, but as they were 
mainly used by the ancient Egyptians for their rock-tombs, they were 
invested with unfailing interest. The west bank of the river was gener- 
ally high; composed of many layers of Nile mud, in which the lines of 
stratification could be plainly seen — illustrating how the sedimentary 
rocks were formed in the Geological Ages. And on either bank we 
saw men all day long, at work with shadoofs or sakiehs raising water ; 
patient, uncomplaining, though ill-fed and nearly naked, like genera- 
tions of their ancestors before them ; but seldom singing or laughing. 
The Egyptians impress one as a grave people, of natural dignity and 
courtesy, unless excited to passion, when they become noisy and 
ungovernable. 

As we ascended the river the scenery grew more beautiful, the cliffs 
loftier and bolder, and their effects of light and shade and coloring more 
subtle in their gradations and softer in tone. The charm of an Egyp- 
tian landscape consists chiefly in these effects ; so difficult for any one 
but a poet to describe, or for any one but an artist to observe with ac- 
curacy. They appear, however, most marked at sunset, and then one 
who is neither a poet nor an artist cannot fail to be entranced with their 
exceeding loveliness. As the sun begins to sink below the hills of the 
Lybian desert, every shadow in the recesses of the hills turns to violet, 
while the rocks glow with a golden hue, and the cloudless sky is crim- 
son. Then the sun dips out of sight and the cliffs turn to an ashen 
gray, and the sky is suffused with pink. A few minutes later a deep 
blue shade creeps up the Eastern horizon and remains defined against 
the pink flush, which gradually fades out and the blue becomes uniform 
and the stars begin to show. Ten or fifteen minutes later comes the 
after-glow, something like that observed on the snow-crowned summits 

3 



34 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



of the Alps, when the sky is filled with a soft golden light, while dusky 
twilight enwraps the landscape. Soon this is gone, and it is at once 
night. Such is, with few variations, the sunset in Upper Egypt ; beau- 
tiful but never gorgeous with clouds of purple and crimson and gold, 
such as we often see at home. For clouds rarely occur in that per- 
fectly dry atmosphere. 

We approached the town of Luxor, on the east bank of the river, 
early in the afternoon of the second day's sail. Opposite it, on the west 
bank, lies the great plain on which once stood the mighty city of 
Thebes, with its hundred gates ; nothing left of it now but a few ruined 
temples that we had come 450 miles to see. As we swept through a 
bend in the river and caught sight of Luxor in the distance, we levelled 
our glasses upon the western plain to see if we could discern aught of 
those majestic ruins. Sure enough, there they were — the temple of 
Koorneh and the Rameseum and the twin Colossi, sitting with their 
faces toward the sun-rising, and still further south an irregular outline 
against the sky, which we were told was the palace or temple of Medi- 
net Haboo. With delighted expectancy we steamed on, and about 
three o'clock in the afternoon made fast to the wharf at Luxor. 

We noticed that the wind was rising as we came in • dark clouds 
began to spread over the sky and shut out the sun. Is it possible that 
it is going to rain ? we asked. Not so, our dragoman replied ; a sand- 
storm from the western desert is coming. Soon it arrived. It struck 
the river and ploughed it into great waves, white-capped and angry, 
that rocked our vessel like a cradle. The men hastily took down the 
deck-awnings, and stored away the rugs and cushions, and fastened 
windows and port-holes to keep out the sand, that blown from the 
desert in vast clouds rained through every crevice and filled the air with 
its sharp, irritating particles. It was difficult to see, difficult even to 
breathe, in the atmosphere surcharged with sand. We were obliged to 
shut ourselves up in our close state-rooms to escape the fury of the 
storm, which blew itself out in the course of the evening and left us a 
quiet night. It is not usual that so severe a storm occurs so early in 
the season ; but we were rather glad it came, that we might have expe- 
rience of a genuine sand-storm from the desert. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Temples of Luxor and Karnak. 

UXOR, Karnak and Thebes are three names by which we desig- 
nate different groups of ruins, that all once belonged to the one 
city of Thebes ; a mighty and splendid city in its palmy days, 
"the city of the hundred gates," that Homer sang of. sharing with 
Memphis the distinction of being the most renowned of the capitals of 
Egypt. It is referred to by several of the Old Testament prophets 
under the name of No or No-amon, which means the city of Amon the 
sun- god of the Egyptians. Thus Jeremiah* represents the Lord as say- 
ing, " Behold, I will punish the multitude of No." And Ezekielf makes 
Him say, " I will execute judgments in No ; . . . I will cut off the 
multitude of No ; . . . No shall be rent asunder." These prophetic 
references, it will be noticed, testify to the vast population of ancient 
Thebes. While the prophet NahumJ also describes its situation ; "Art 
thou," says he to Nineveh, " better than populous No, that was situate 
among the rivers, that had the waters round about it. whose rampart 
was the sea, and her wall was from the sea ? " A very fitting descrip- 
tion ; for the city was built on both sides of the Nile, at a point where 
the mountains recede on either side, leaving a plain perhaps fifty miles 
broad through which the river pours with increasing width, so that one 
seems to be sailing on an arm of the sea, rather than upon a stream 600 
miles above its mouth. Truly the city ; ' had the waters round about 
it;" they gave it strength and the support of its people, enriching this 
otherwise barren plain, and making it a very garden of plenty. 

Thebes was an important city before the days of Abraham, as early 
as 2500 B. C, when it became the seat of empire under the nth and 
1 2th dynasties of kings. Though the Shepherd-kings or Hyksos dis- 
possessed its rulers of a large part of Egypt for about 500 years, in the 

*Jer. 46:25. f Ezek. 30 : 14-16. iNah.3:S. 



36 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



1 8th dynasty these intruders were defeated and driven out, and all 
Egypt was reunited under the rule of Theban kings, who became famous 
builders of temples and cities, as well as warriors of renown. Thebes 
continued to flourish for many hundreds of years, till finally overthrown 
by Ptolemy Lathyrus about a hundred years B. C. Now there remains 
nothing of its thousands of private dwellings, its shops, and markets, 
and wharves, and public buildings ; all are gone long since. There are 
left only five groups of ruins of its sacred edifices, three on the western 
bank of the river and two on the eastern — besides some small temples 
and a multitude of tombs. On the west, one coming up the river sees 
first the temple of Koorneh, then the Rameseum and the twin Colossi 
near by, and then the temple or palace known as Medinet Haboo — the 
last nearly four miles beyond the first. On the east are the temples, 
first of Karnak, and then of Luxor nearly two miles above. The ancient 
city doubtless included all these structures. Its residences probably 
were built for the most part on the eastern bank of the river, where the 
gardens and palm-groves grew ; while on the sunset side were erected 
those stately monuments and memorial temples celebrating the deeds 
of great kings, and beyond these, among the hills of the desert, were 
entombed the dead. 

The modern Arab village of El-Uksur or Luxor, the place where we 
landed from our steamboat, has grown up about the ruins of the south- 
ernmost temple on the eastern bank. The older hovels were built 
within and around and upon the very ruins, to whose massive walls they 
clung in their frailty, looking like hornets' nests attached to the sides or 
cornices of a house. Many of these hovels have been cleared away in 
excavating the ruins, but many still remain ; and it seems grotesque to 
see here a graceful obelisk and there a majestic pylon or gateway- 
rising from the midst of mud walls and the filthy adjuncts of an Arab 
village. There are some more pretentious buildings however, in the 
newer part of the village ; several decent-looking hotels for the accom- 
modation of tourists, and the houses of the European and American 
Consulates, and of the Egptian Governor. The natives live altogether 
upon visitors, catering to the latter's wants and doing a considerable 
trade in antiquities ; the most of which however have not been taken 
out of the old tombs and temples, as is pretended, but have been manu- 
factured in the village for sale to poor deluded tourists, who often pay- 
extravagant prices for these spurious articles. So clever indeed is the 
imitation in scarabaei or stone-beetles, jewelry, pottery and statuettes, 



THE TEMPLES OF LUXOR AND KARNAK. 37 



that only an expert can tell the difference between the counterfeit and 
the real antique. 

When we went ashore we had no sooner appeared on the street lead- 
ing to the temple than we were pounced upon by a motley crowd of 
Arabs, importuning us to buy all sorts of supposed antiquities and trink- 
ets, or offering to guide us, and begging persistently for backsheesh. 
They stuck to us as closely as did the Egyptian flies, that not even the 
wind from the desert blew away, and were quite as annoying. But we 
pushed by them along the dusty street, and saw in it an excavation the 
Government has recently made, laying bare a portion of the dromos or 
avenue that once led from this temple at Luxor nearly two miles to the 
still grander temple of Karnak, and was bordered on either side with 
sphinxes in stone, about ten feet long. They were all mutilated more 
or less ; but one of them had the face almost perfectly preserved, and 
it was a face of great sweetness. We afterwards saw the other end of 
this avenue, near the temple of Karnak, and observing the short inter- 
vals at which the sphinxes are placed, coucluded that originally there 
must have been about a thousand of them — i. e., five hundred on each 
side of the avenue. What a magnificent approach to both temples this 
must have been, when these now shattered stones couched like guards 
along the way, instinct with majesty and beauty ! 

Reaching the temple, whose grand entrance faces not toward the 
river, as in the case of other temples, but northward toward Karnak, 
we saw standing in front of it a splendid obelisk of red granite, 84 feet 
high, placed there by Rameses the Great, 1300 years B. C. The four 
sides of this obelisk are engraved with hieroglyphs in three vertical col- 
umns, cut with the most delicate precision. The companion to this 
monolith, which once stood about twenty paces away, was removed by 
the French to Paris, in 1831, and now adorns the centre of the Place 
de la Concorde, on the spot where the terrible guillotine did its bloody 
work in the Revolution of a hundred years ago. Looking down upon 
the tide of fashionable equipages that roll through the Champs Elysees 
to its base, it seems solemnly to rebuke the gaiety and frivolity of Pari- 
sian life, amidst which it looks so much out of place. It has fared 
worse than its mate in Luxor, under the disintegrating influences of a 
severer climate, so that its carvings do not show so fine. 

We have seen pictures of the great gate way of this temple at 
Luxor showing its twin towers, in front of which sit on either side two 
colossal statues of Rameses in gray granite, buried to their chins in 



38 A DO MINE IN BIB IE BANDS. 

rubbish. So it was a few years ago ; but now the rubbish has been 
cleared away, and the battered, featureless colossi appear in their full 
proportions. On a line with them to the right, i. <?., the west, is a third 
statue of red stone in a standing position. These and the Pylon or 
gateway were erected by Rameses. The Pylon is constructed of great 
stones, carved on the outside in intaglio representations of gods and 
men, horses and chariots, war and triumph. The king, Rameses II or 
Rameses the Great as he is variously called, is portrayed of gigantic size 
standing in his chariot, drawing his terrible bow and slaying his enemies 
the Khetas or Hittites. Then he appears seated on his throne, an 
umbrella held over his head, and the priests congratulating him on his 
victory and burning incense before him ; while his tents are represented 
as filled with spoil. This successful campaign of his against the Hittites is 
commemorated on the walls of almost every temple he built, as we found 
out later. The story of the poet-chronicler, Pentaour, is that Rameses 
in the battle became separated from his army and was surrounded by 
the enemy ; but attended only by his chariot-driver he charged repeat- 
edly on the foe, hewed them down with his sword and trampled them 
under his horses and put them to flight, returning safely to his own men. 
" 2,500 chariots were there, and he overthrew them • 100,000 warriors, 
and he scattered them." We are inclined to think that the court- poet 
somewhat exaggerated the numbers of the foe and the exploits of the 
king ; but no doubt his chronicle and the sculptures on these temple- 
walls referred to some brave deed of arms actually done by the king in 
sight though out of reach of his army. 

Entering the Pylon one comes into a spacious court, adorned with 
double rows of round columns of great height, between which stand 
colossal statues now sadly mutilated. The columns and architraves are 
all carved with hieroyglyphs of birds and animals ; while on the inner 
walls are depicted sacred processions of priests and bulls. We saw also 
here a profile of Menepthah, the Pharaoh whom Moses besought to let 
the people of Israel go and who brought the plagues upon Egypt by his 
obstinate refusal. In this court and before the temple proper are two 
sitting statues of Rameses of colossal size, and on one side three red 
granite statues of him in a standing position. One of them which 
represents him as young is almost perfectly preserved and expresses 
beauty ; the others supposed to have represented him when middle-aged 
and old are considerably shattered. Our attention was called here to 
the fact that the columns in this court, which are 62 feet in height and 



THE TEMPLES OF LUXOR AND KARNAK. 



have capitals made after the pattern of papyrus-flowers, are slightly 
convex in shape — smaller at the base than in the middle — to correct 
the optical illusion that is caused by perfectly plane surfaces and 
makes the effect less impressive. One sees the difference of effect 
illustrated by comparing the church of the Madeleine in Paris with the 
Parthenon at Athens, of which the church is a copy. The Greeks, like 
the Egyptians, gave a convex line to their columns ; while the surfaces of 
the pillars around the Madeleine are plane, and the pillars look stiff, 
and one misses in them the graceful effect of the Parthenon. 

All that we had seen so far was added by Rameses to the original 
temple of Amunoph or Amerihotep III, who built it between 1500 and 
1600 B. C. Other intervening kings had added their work to the 
building, as, e. g., Horus had raised a lofty colonnade on the river-side. 
But Rameses constructed the court and pylon on the north side, and set 
them at an angle of five degrees to the earlier buildings, in order to 
make the temple front the avenue of sphinxes, which he made to con- 
nect it with the temple of Karnak. Now we passed into the large hall 
of Amenhotep's temple, a square inclosure with double rows of columns 
around the four sides, each column being so cut as to give the appear- 
ance of being composed of eight smaller ones. Behind this was another 
smaller hall, which had in a later age been turned into a Roman tribune 
or a Christian basilica ■ and here we noticed they had plastered over 
the Egyptian hieroglyphics and had frescoed the walls in Roman red 
and yellow. We visited also the sanctuary, which was rebuilt by one of 
the Ptolemies, an oblong granite chamber, and some small side-cham- 
bers, used as dressing-rooms by the priests, as store rooms, and as 
chapels ; all of whose walls are covered with sculptures representing 
mythological scenes, sacred processions, and rites of worship — some of 
which would hardly bear description. But it may be remarked, that 
all this mass of sculptured work on the walls suggests how appropriately 
Moses was given the Decalogue written on tables of stone. It was 
natural that it should have been so written for a people just come up 
out of Egypt, where the history and religion and common life of the 
country were constantly recorded in lasting stone. 

I have described thus at length this temple of Luxor, not because it 
was the finest we visited, but because it was the first, and it gives an 
idea of the general arrangement and style of all the Egyptian temples. 
But far grander than this is the temple or rather collection of temples 
at Karnak, on the same Eastern side of the river, less than two miles 



40 



A D OM1NE IN BIB IE IANDS. 



below Luxor. We were to ride thither on donkeys, and when we came 
out on the street where the Arabs were waiting for us with their ani- 
mals, we had another lively experience. They were all struggling 
among themselves to get the job, and crowded upon us, and plucked us 
by the sleeve, and clamored to be hired, and vaunted each one the 
praises of his particular donkey, and shouted fiercely at one another in 
a way calculated to strike terror into the soul of a stranger, who expected 
momentarily to see them butcher one another. But our dragoman beat 
around him with his whip, lashing them without mercy and quite impar- 
tially, and selected his donkeys and put us on them ; and we were soon 
galloping oat of the village and across the plain toward Karnak. 

Our road led us past clumps of palm trees and shapeless mounds 
that indicated ruins not yet explored into a sandy hollow, where we 
struck again the avenue of sphinxes, eighty feet wide, that once con- 
nected the temples of Karnak and Luxor. This was only one of many 
such avenues ; seven others they say led from this stupendous edifice. 
Presently we rode under a lofty gate or arch seventy feet high inside, 
that stood quite by itself some distance in front of the temple. It was 
built by Ptolemy I, of the 33d dynasty 247 B. C. as an approach- to 
the ancient structure ; and among its well-preserved sculptures is one of 
the king in Greek costume. We passed on to the temple built by 
Rameses III, about 1250 B. C, where we dismounted and walked in 
beneath the great tower-gates. First we entered the usual peristyle 
court, where perhaps the people were sometimes allowed to enter in 
old times and where the priests took air and exercise ; adorned with 
double rows of large round columns, six on each side. Then we passed 
beyond into the hypostyle hall, where the processions and other religious 
services of the priests were conducted ; the remains of its roof of stone 
slabs supported by a double row of columns with capitals of papyrus- 
flowers. On the walls were bas-reliefs representing the king making 
offerings to the gods and undergoing purification. Beyond this hall is 
found the sanctuary or holy of holies, where the god dwelt in darkness 
and mystery ; and about it various side-chambers, whose uses have been 
referred to. 

Coming out we remounted our donkeys, and rode from this south 
entrance partly around the group of buildings, which is nearly two miles 
in circumference, and is surrounded by walls eighty feet high, to what 
is called the Great Temple of Karnak on the west or river side. Here 
we found another avenue of sphinxes, which had a ram's head on a 



THE TEMPLES OF LUXOR AND KARNAK. 41 



lion's body. This avenue once led to a bridge over the Nile, which 
connected Karnak with the temple of Koorneh on the opposite side. 
On one of the interior walls we saw a rude representation of this bridge 
crossing the river full of crocodiles. The western entrance to the temple 
is very imposing; its wall is 370 feet wide and 120 feet high. It admits 
one into a quadrangle 329 x 275 feet, open to the sky and with many 
broken columns around the sides ; one only of vast size remains whole, 
which belonged to a double colonnade forming an approach to the en- 
trance of the hypostyle hall beyond. On the right side of this quadran- 
gular court is a temple of older date, with a propylon 90 feet wide, 
within which is a court decorated with rows of Osiridean pillars, i. e., 
pillars hewed in the shape of statues of Osiris ; and beyond this are 
other apartments. The sculptures in this temple belong mostly to the 
reign of Rameses III. On the other side of the quadrangle is a struc- 
ture also, containing three chapels. On the external wall of the quad- 
rangle are some of the most interesting pictures of battle scenes and 
captives with uplifted hands seeking clemency, and the notable list of 
countries subdued by Shishak — among them the kingdom of Judah, 
which confirms the account in 1 Kings 14: 25, 26. 

Crossing the quadrangle we came to a mighty ruined portal over a 
hundred feet high, and entered the hypostyle hall — the most magnifi- 
cent work of its kind in Egypt. This was projected by Rameses I, of 
the 19th dynasty, but constructed by Seti I, the father of Rameses the 
Great, who afterwards added the sculptures and decorations. It is 170 
feet long, 340 wide and 80 high, and the cathedral of Notre Dame 
in Paris could be placed within it. The roof was made of stone slabs, 
each of thirty tons weight, resting on stone beams that are supported by 
134 gigantic columns. Twelve of the latter, which form the central 
avenue of the hall, are 66 feet high and 1 1 feet 6 inches in diameter ; 
the other columns are over 40 feet high and 9 in diameter, with papy- 
rus-flower capitals and engraved hieroglyphs painted in colors still fresh. 
We saw a statue of Seti I between two of the columns, and it is sup- 
posed that originally there were statues between all the columns. 
Though the hall was roofed over it was not dark, for light was gained 
through stone lattices in the clere-story. The impression produced by 
this prodigious architecture is overwhelming. The forest of stone col- 
umns seems endless in whatever direction one looks ; it is the work of 
Titans; in nobility of conception, in majestic beauty, exceeding all 
buildings in the world. It dwarfs any other work of its kind, as the Big 



4 2 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



Trees in California dwarf the loftiest firs and pines with which they come 
into comparison. 

Passing through this famous hall we came out into a ruined court 
piled with huge stones — that of Thothmes I. Here lies on the ground a 
broken obelisk of red granite, and near by is the tallest obelisk now 
standing in Egypt, erected by Queen Hatasu, of the 18th dynasty. It 
is one piece of red granite, 97 feet 7 inches high. The shorter obelisk 
of Thothmes I, 70 feet high, stands just beyond. We went on to the 
adytum or chief sanctuary, in front of which stand two broken obelisks 
of the same red granite. One of them bears on its side a bas-relief of 
lotus-flowers, the other a bas-relief of papyrus-flowers. Every visitor 
looks for these as especially beautiful, and certainly we saw in Egypt no 
carving so fine. We entered the adytum, built of red granite and hav- 
ing a roof of thick slabs of stone, and looking back westward we could 
see through the long vista of columns the river Nile in the distance and 
its waving palm trees on the further bank. 

Behind this sanctuary are fragments of a very ancient part of the 
temple, dating back to the days of Usurtesen I of the 12th dynasty, 
2400 B. C. And still beyond we visited the edifice of Thothmes III, 
1600 B. C, which was once turned into a Christian church. We had 
already seen the work of Seti and Rameses and Ptolemy, and so we 
gained an impression of the way in which this cluster of temples had 
grown through a period of 22 centuries, gathering increase of grandeur 
and loveliness, and becoming one of the wonders of the world. Then 
we went back to the western entrance, where we climbed to the top of 
the front wall to take the view. Before us the Nile glistened in the 
afternoon sun ; on either side of it a belt of living green, fields of grain 
and groves of palm trees. On the western horizon the orange-colored 
hills of the Lybian desert; below them the Colossi and the memorial 
temples of Koorneh, the Rameseum and Medinet Haboo. To the 
south Luxor and its ruined temple. Behind us the vast structures that 
we had just explored. It was a noble view. But what must it have 
been when all these buildings and the mighty city that enclosed them 
were complete ! When these courts were thronged with gorgeous 
priestly pageants and these avenues lined with sphinxes were filled 
with people, and the streets swarmed with busy life, and the river, 
crowded with traffic, flowed between banks of palaces and warehouses ! 
Imagination finds it difficult to reconstruct the picture of Thebes' 



THE TEMPLES OF LUXOR AND KARNAK. 



ancient glory ; yet glorious must have been this city, whose fame spread 
even to distant Greece and was celebrated in Homer's song. 

But great as was the civilization of Thebes and grand as are its ruined 
monuments, our study of the latter gives us no high estimate of the 
character of its people. They were singularly skilful in the useful arts, 
no doubt, remarkable builders, possessed of a genius for construction. 
They were a very religious people who reared these ponderous fabrics 
for purposes of worship. But what sort of gods did they adore ? And 
how did their worship affect the life of the people ? Alas, their gods 
were but idols, and idols of the baser kind. They worshipped beasts 
and birds and reptiles — the serpent and the crocodile, the apis and the 
ibis, the sacred bull, and the symbol of procreation. Their religion was 
degrading, not elevating ; was associated with moral filth that left its 
shime upon the heart of the people. Cruelty and oppression were the 
outcome of their faith. The masses were enslaved by superstition, and 
were held as the drudges and tools of the master-class. The king was 
deified, and absorbed the state in himself. The priests held occult the 
mysteries of religion • the warriors divided the spoil ; the common 
people were left without hope or aspiration. Surely the civilization of 
ancient Egypt was not worth preserving ; it deserved to perish from the 
earth. 



CHAPTER VI. 



The Tombs of the Theban Kings. 




[ITjREQUENT descriptions have familiarized us with the great care 



and expense with which the ancient Egygtians disposed of the 



bodies of their dead, especially of their distinguished dead. For 
while it would seem to have been the lot of the common people to 
mingle their dust with the common clay, the bodies of kings and priests 
and nobles and their families were first embalmed or mummied and then 
preserved in the most enduring tombs. The process of embalming 
*f consisted in infusing a quantity of resinous substances into the cavities 
of the body after the removal of the intestines, and then applying a 
regulated heat to decompose these substances and dry up the humors. 
Thirty days were allotted to this process ; forty more were spent in 
anointing the body with spices • then it was washed, and tightly wrapped 
in numerous folds of linen cloth, whose joinings were fastened with 
gum, and placed in a wooden casket made in the shape of a human 
figure." On the outside of the casket was painted and gilded a full 
length portrait of the deceased, as we see on many mummy-cases in the 
Boulak Museum. Then the casket was deposited in a stone sarcopha- 
gus in its rocky tomb. 

It was thus that the body of the aged Jacob, who died in Egypt, was 
disposed of. "Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to 
embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel."* Seventy 
days the Egyptians mourned for him, and then in accordance with his 
dying request, Joseph and his brethren and a great company of Pha- 
raoh's servants took him to his ancestral burial-place in the cave of 
Machpelah, near Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and there they buried 
him.f Joseph himself, before he died, made his brethren swear to 
carry his bones with them to Canaan when God should fulfill His 

* Gen. 50 : 2. f Gen. 50 : 7-13. 



THE TOMBS OF THE THEBAN KINGS. 



promise to bring them thither; and he was embalmed and put in a 
a coffin in Egypt.* Ultimately his desire was accomplished; the Isra- 
elites in their exodus carried Joseph's mummy with them, and after 
their forty years' wandering in the wilderness he was laid at rest in the 
land of promise.! So closely does Scriptural history agree with what 
we learn from the monuments of the Egyptians about their customs of 
embalming the dead. 

But the tombs in which this people laid away the mummies of their 
departed heroes, were designed not only for the permanent preservation 
of the latter, but to perpetuate their names. No people ever lavished 
so much on these pious memorials of the dead. They expended more 
on them than on houses or palaces for the living ; the reason probably 
being found in the statement of Diodorus, that " the Egyptians call 
their houses hostelries, on account of the short time during which they 
inhabit them ; but the tombs they call eternal dwelling-places." Even 
the kings appear to have lived in buildings constructed of no stronger 
materials than the houses of the people, viz. : brick and wood — at least 
so the representations of their palaces that we see on the walls of their 
tombs would indicate. But they reared wonderful mausoleums for them- 
selves. The earlier kings built the pyramids for their sepulchres ; and 
the later kings of the Theban dynasties pierced the rock-mountains of 
the Lybian desert with long galleries and stately chambers, within which 
their remains should repose. 

In the delicious coolness of a bright morning we left our steamer in 
small boats to visit these tombs of the kings, and were rowed across the 
river to the western bank. There we found the water so shallow that 
we could not beach our boats, but had to be carried to shore in the 
arms of the Arab boatmen. Awaiting us on the bank was a crowd of 
yelling and gesticulating Arabs, with their donkeys, who in their eager- 
ness to be hired pushed against us till we were in imminent danger of 
being shoved back into the river. But at length we were successfully 
mounted, and our sturdy little beasts, each urged on with many a shout 
and blow by his driver running at his heels, bore us swiftly over the 
sands towards the hills, that looked lovely in their orange and gray 
tints. We reached, presently, a small arm of the Nile, which we crossed 
in flat-bottomed scows ; the donkeys being also carried over in scows 
by themselves. It was amusing to see the drivers urge the diminutive 
creatures into the water, and up to the boat, and then beat them to en- 



* Gen. 50 : 24-26. 



fExod. 13 : 19 ; Josh. 24 : 32. 



46 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



courage them to jump into it ; helping them in by a vigorous push from 
the rear. One stubborn donkey was determined not to go ; no amount 
of cudgelling could induce him to make the jump. So they hoisted first 
his fore-quarters into the boat, and then his hind-quarters, when he fell 
flat on the deck, and would not get up till he had been cudgelled a long 
time. At last we all passed over the stream, both people and donkeys, 
and resumed the ride, some of us on dry saddles, and some on wet 
ones. On this side of the stream there joined us from a village near 
by a number of bright-eyed young girls from eight to a dozen years old, 
bearing goollahs or clay-jars of water on their heads, which they brought 
to sell to us if we should be thirsty. They ran by the side of the 
donkeys, and kept up with us all day, no matter how fast we galloped, 
sticking to us like burrs in hope of backsheesh. 

We rode through the rippling fields of wheat and barley and lentils, 
and struck into the desert, whose air was bracing and delightful as the 
air of our great plains, west of the Missouri river. On our way loomed 
up before us the ruined temple of Goornah, or Koorneh, which is sit- 
uated near the entrance of the gorge leading into the mountains and 
to the tombs, and we stopped to examine it. This was a structure 
erected to the memory of Rameses I by his son Seti I, about 1335 B. 
C. Seti, however, died before the work was completed, and his son 
and successor, Rameses the Great, finished it, and added sculptures in 
memory of his beloved father, Seti. Still later Menepthah, the son and 
successor of Rameses the Great, left his inscriptions on the building, 
which thus became a sort of family monument — a memorial chapel as 
we should say. 

Its front portico was originally supported by ten lofty convex 
columns, of which eight are still standing ; and on them and on the 
entablature are engraved hieroglyphics. There are three entrances to 
the interior. Passing in by the middle one we found a hall with double 
rows of three columns on each side ; this led to an inner apartment, and 
there were several small side-chambers opening out of the hall. Within 
the northern entrance are some ruined chambers of little interest. The 
southern entrance admits one into a separate part of the edifice, con- 
taining a small hall and three chambers behind it. All the inner walls 
are profusely sculptured. One representation, e. g., was that of Seti 
kneeling before Amon-ra, the sun-god, and making offerings. The god 
holds in his hand the ring and the T-cross, the emblem of life, and has 
the disk of the sun over his head. In another place Seti is seen mak- 



THE TOMBS OE THE THEE AN KINGS. 47 



ing offerings to Amon-ra and to his father, Rameses I, now deified and 
crowned like Osiris. Elsewhere Seti himself, being now dead, is repre- 
sented as deified and worshipped by his son, Rameses II. In another 
chamber is a figure of the god Anubis, with the head of an ibis, an 
Egpptian bird, and holding in his hand the emblem of life. In another 
Osiris is seen seated on a throne, and behind him four genii. Each of 
the chambers thus is sacred to some deity. 

The purpose of the whole building I have indicated in calling it a 
memorial chapel. Mariette plausibly suggests that it and the other 
temples on the western side of the river were erected in connection 
with the royal tombs in the adjacent valley of Bab-el- Molook. " Every 
Egyptian tomb of importance elsewhere has its outer chamber or 
chapel, whose walls are covered with paintings descriptive of the occu- 
pations of the deceased on earth, or of the adventures of his soul after 
death. Here at stated seasons the survivors of the family came with 
their offerings of fruit and flowers, poultry and cakes and incense,which 
they offered in worship. Such scenes are often represented upon the 
monuments. But there are no such chambers or chapels connected 
with the royal tombs in the valley of Bab-el-Molook. These tombs 
consist only of tunnelled passages and sepulchral vaults, whose en- 
trances were sealed up as soon as the mummied king was placed in 
his sarcophagus within. Hence it is supposed that each memorial 
temple was related to the tomb of its tutelary king as the chamber or 
chapel attached to the tomb of a private individual was related to it. 
Only, a chapel on so grand a scale would imply an elaborate ceremonial. 
A dead and deified king would have his priests and processions and 
sacrifices, which would require all these halls and side-chambers in the 
temple of Koorneh." 

Leaving this temple we mounted our donkeys, and amidst renewed 
appeals for backsheesh from the water-girls, rode into the ravine of the 
mountains to visit the tombs of the kings. This ravine, inclosed by 
limestone precipices, winds behind the cliffs that face Luxor and Karnak 
and are perforated with tombs of priests and nobles, and brings us to a 
valley beyond. As we proceed, the path becomes rough and stony, 
and seems to have been once the bed of a torrent that flowed through 
these hills. The sun grows hot ; the still air palpitates with the heat, 
and the rocks and the sand reflect a glare painful to the eyes. Not a 
blade of grass nor the smallest shrub is seen ; not a sign of life any- 
where; all is desolation and death. We go through a passage cut 



4 8 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



through a solid wall of limestone, which the Arabs call Bab-eI-Molook y 
i. e., the Gate of the Sultan, and follow the windings of a narrower 
valley, till we see here and there square openings at the foot of the 
rocks, which are entrances to tombs. Here we dismount and proceed 
to enter five or six of them — all unlike in detail, but similar in general 
features. 

The finest of all is that of Seti I, which was discovered by Belzoni in 
1 819, and hence is often called Belzoni's tomb. One descends a stair- 
case and then a steep and narrow passage excavated in the rock, and 
leading to a deep pit now filled up. Just beyond the pit is a hall, 26 x 
27 feet, whose walls are covered with painted sculptures; to the right 
of it a chamber, and to the left a flight of steps leading down to a corri- 
dor; then another flight of steps, then another corridor ending in a 
chamber, 17 x 14 feet, from which one passes to a hall 27 feet square. 
This is only the approach to the great sepulchral hall, 19 x 30 feet with 
arched roof and beautiful sculptures on its walls and ceiling. In this 
hall Belzoni found an alabaster sarcophagus. But it was empty ; the 
mummy it once contained was taken about 1000 B. C. to the safer 
hiding-place, at Der-el-Bahari, where it was discovered a few years ago, 
and whence it was taken to the Boulak Museum. The sarcophagus 
was removed to a museum, and on its removal a descending passage 
appeared below it, that has been cleared out for 300 feet. Opening 
out from the sepulchral hall are several chambers beside. The entire 
length of these excavations in the solid rock is said to be 470 feet, and 
the total descent about 180 feet. What an immense labor it must have 
been to chisel out this tomb, and then to carve upon its walls by artifi- 
cial light these delicately drawn pictures, and to paint them in colors of 
red and yellow and black, that retain their freshness to this day. What 
skill, what amount of time, what expense were lavished upon this single 
tomb ! 

It was not easy to make out these pictures by the dim light of the 
little tapers that we carried, and in the course of our hurried survey. 
For the most part they represent the wanderings of the soul after its 
separation from the body and the dangers besetting it — the demons it 
must fight, the accusers it must meet, the transformations and purifica- 
tions it must undergo. In one chamber is told the story of the wrath 
of the chief god against mankind for their rebelliousness, his consulta- 
tion with the other gods over the matter, and the destruction of man- 
kind determined upon ; a story which bears resemblance to the Biblical 



7 HE TOMBS OF THE THEBAN KINGS. 



49 



record of the Flood. Another scene is depicted, in which the serpent 
of evil is dragged up from the depth of the sea, and slain by the god of 
light ; a scene suggestive also of Biblical imagery and promise. There 
is much of curious interest in these sculptures of the tomb of Seti. 

Perhaps the next finest of the sepulchres is that of Rameses III, of 
the 20th dynasty, discovered by the traveller Bruce. It is about 400 
feet long, and once contained a sarcophagus of red granite that has been 
removed to Europe. Its mural paintings are not so well executed as 
those of Seti's tomb ; the drawing is more careless and the coloring 
coarser ; but they are remarkable for their representations of the com- 
mon life of the people, rather than for mythological horrors. They 
cover the walls of a series of small side chambers opening off the main 
corridor. One e. g. represents the Nile, and ships going up stream and 
down stream. Another exhibits kitchen scenes, cooks and bakers pre- 
paring the royal dinner. In another the god of arms is seen, and a col- 
lection of spears, daggers, bows, and armor. In another agricultural 
life is depicted; men are ploughing the fields, sowing, and reaping. 
Here also are the famous delineations of the two harpers and their 
harps, which have been so often copied ; they are now much defaced. 

We entered also the tomb of Rameses III, which has a higher ceil- 
ing, and the inclination of the passage is less steep. At the end of the 
tomb the great sarcophagus of red granite that once contained the remains 
of the king is still in its place and is uninjured. On the ceiling of the 
chamber is drawn the zodiac. This tomb was formerly used by Christians 
for a place of worship and one can see in it Coptic inscriptions and the 
symbol of the cross. Then we visited the tomb of Rameses VI, in 
which we saw the double-headed sphinx and astronomical figures on the 
ceiling. And the tomb of Rameses IX, where is depicted the scara- 
baeus or beetle, the emblem of the resurrection. Most of these royal 
tombs were open in Ptolemaic times, and were then as now among the 
show-sights of Thebes. Some of them were previously plundered of 
their treasures by Persian invaders ; and some even before that were 
robbed by the Egyptians themselves and by the very priests. 

All these sepulchral monuments show that the Egyptian mind was 
full of thoughts about death and a future life. The Egyptians were not 
a gay and thoughtless race, but a grave and solemn and religious people. 
They believed in immortality ; as is evident from the remains of their 
literature preserved in many a roll of papyrus, and as is witnessed by 
the symbols they sculptured upon their walls. "One symbol most 

4 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



frequently employed is that of the scarabaeus or beetle, which by 
analogy teaches a new life coming out of death. The beetle lays its 
eggs in the slime of the Nile ; it buries them in mud, which it works 
into a ball and rolls over and over back to the edge of the desert and 
hides in the sand. There its work is ended ■ out of this grave comes in 
time a living creature." So the Egyptians expected a life hereafter for 
their dead ; not only an immortality for the soul but a resurrection of 
the body. " They regarded their tombs as resting-places for the bodies 
of those whose spirits were absent but would some day return. For 
this reason bodies were so carefully embalmed, and laid away in tombs 
hewn out of the solid rock or built up of lasting masonry. There it was 
thought these remains would be secure till the spirits came back." 

They believed also in future retribution. The soul passed into another 
life where it was to be judged for the deeds done in the body by 
Osiris sitting on his throne. This scene of judgment is constantly 
portrayed in sculptures on the walls of their tombs. Before Osiris is 
the scribe who keeps a record of the deeds that have been done, and 
with him are associated the questioners who examine the soul. The 
" Book of the Dead," copies of which are found wrapped up with mum- 
mies, give the answers to be made to these searching questions and the 
prayers that are to be said and the hymns sung when the soul enters 
the other world. 

Here are foreshadowings of Biblical ideas, crude and fragmentary and 
connected with much of error and superstition, yet exhibiting some 
knowledge of essential truth. No doubt these doctrines are to be 
traced back to that primitive religious tradition which the early 
descendants of Noah carried with them when they were scattered abroad 
after the confusion of tongues at Babel. Most of the nations sinking 
into gross idolatry and materialism lost sight of these hopes of a future 
life. The religious nature of the Egyptians clung to them though 
distorted and obscured by error. But how inferior are they to the full 
and authoritative and satisfactory teachings of Revelation ! How little 
could they have relieved the doubts of a troubled mind or the sorrows of 
a heavy heart ! It is only in the Bible that we can find God appropri- 
ately set forth in His majesty and tenderness, the trust of the penitent 
and forgiven sinner ; or heaven described as the home of the perfected 
soul joined to a body raised incorruptible. It is only Christ, "who 
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light 
through the gospel."* 

* II Tim. 1:10. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Memorial Temples of Thebes. 

HEN we had sufficiently gratified our curiosity in the inspection 
of the royal tombs, we were called to lunch, which was served 
to us in the entrance to a tomb not yet excavated. Here, 
screened from the blazing sunshine by the side-wall of the entrance, we 
sat on stones set each side of a long table-cloth spread on the ground 
and laden with abundant refreshment, that tasted well in the keen air of 
the desert. We did not return by the way we came, but climbed the 
mountain on foot to descend on the eastern side by a short cut. It was 
quite steep, and the footing was rather insecure in the slipping sands 
and small stones, and the sun now at noon was very hot. But we 
achieved the ascent, and were rewarded for our toil by a noteworthy 
view. Around and behind us were the bare and rocky heights of these 
mountains. At our feet on the right were the tombs of Dar-el-Bahari, 
where were found a dozen years ago forty royal mummies piled together 
for safety in the mortuary chamber of Her-Hor ; among them the mum- 
mies of Rameses I, Seti I, and Rameses the Great — the Pharaoh of the 
Israelitish bondage. Close to these tombs was the ruined temple of 
Queen Hatasu. In the distance on the plain of Thebes the Rameseum 
or temple of Rameses the Great, and further on the twin Colossi. 
The Nile flowed like a silver ribbon beyond the green plain; on its 
eastern bank appeared the village of Luxor and the gloomy mass of 
Karnak below. It was an impressive picture that we were loath to 
leave. But we had to break away finally and descend the mountain, 
which we found nearly as difficult as to climb up ; and we reached the 
temple of Queen Hatasu. 

This stands at the base of a steep cliff, and was partly excavated in 
the rock, party built of masonry which is now almost entirely destroyed. 
It was originally approached by a long avenue of sphinxes, which are 



5^ 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



altogether demolished. We entered a red granite portal, passed through: 
a ruined court and a second granite portal close to the native rock, and 
came into a small chamber with a high arched ceiling, which had once 
been converted into a Christian chapel. We saw also the excavated 
chambers ascribed to Thothmes III ; on the wall a representation of the 
sacred bull in a boat, and one of the king drawing nourishment from the 
sacred cow. On the smoothly finished front wall of the temple are 
particularly well executed bas-reliefs of the queen's fleet on the 
Red Sea; great vessels rowed by many oarsmen, and the border 
of the picture below adorned with figures of different kinds of fish. On 
one side are represented the body-guard of the queen with shields and 
spears, and next a crowd of men carrying supplies to the ships. Further 
on are carved trees and leopards, piles of gum arabic and ebony, and 
large scales in which gold is weighed against bullocks. This temple, 
like that of Koorneh, was probably connected with the sepulchres as a 
sort of funeral chapel. It was destroyed by the Persians. 

We mounted our donkeys at this point and rode to the Rameseum, a 
group of magnificent columns and broken statues grand even in their 
ruin. This was built by Rameses the Great, and was probably the 
chapel used in connection with his tomb for purposes of worship, as I 
have already indicated. Two great pylons partly broken down stand in 
front of the first court, ornamented with sculptures representing battle- 
scenes in the life of Rameses and his victory over the Hittites. He is 
seen gigantic in size standing in his chariot, drawing his bow against his 
enemies. The great court had originally no doubt a double colonnade 
on either side, but every column has been destroyed and the side-walls 
and end -wall as well. In this court lies broken in pieces a colossal 
statue of Rameses, exceeding in weight and dimensions any other 
statue in Egypt. It was made from a single block of red granite ; 
measures 22 feet across the shoulders, and must have been 60 feet 
high, and weighed by computation about 887 tons. It represented the 
king seated on his throne. How this immense block of stone could 
have been brought from distant Syene or Assouan, how it was raised in 
place, or how overthrown, are problems we cannot solve. It stood near the 
entrance to the second court of the temple, which was 140 x 170 feet, 
and had a double row of columns on either side with capitals in the 
form of the papyrus-bud, and at either end a row of Osiridean pillars, 
i. e. pillars carved in the shape of statues of Osiris, or rather of deified 
Rameses bearing the insignia of Osiris. Beyond this second court is 



MEMORIAL TEMPLES OF THEBES. 



53 



the hypostyle hall 100 x 133 feet, which contained 48 columns in eight 
rows of six each having papyrus capitals. The elegant proportions of 
these columns and the ceiling studded with yellow stars on a blue ground 
make the hall one of the most beautiful structures of its kind. ' There 
are two chambers beyond the hall, one of which has been thought to 
have been a library — the walls decorated with mythological subjects. 

It is but a short ride from the Rameseum to the twin Colossi, which 
are situated further south on the plain of Thebes, and stand quite alone 
now in the fields 60 feet apart from each other, facing the river and the 
sun-rising. They were built by Amunoph or Amenhotep III, who is 
portrayed by both of them, and stood before the gate-way of his temple, 
whose site is marked by a mound a little north-west of them. Perhaps 
there were once other statues beside these, and certainly pylons and 
courts and columns and halls as in other temples. But all have now 
disappeared except these great statues 50 feet high, exhibiting the king 
as seated on a throne, while on either side of him and reaching up to 
his knee are standing two female statues believed to represent the 
mother and sister of the king. These Colossi are of hard gritstone, 
monolithic, but were cracked by an earthquake in Roman days. The 
northernmost of them was called the vocal Memnon, and was celebrated 
for the musical sounds said to issue from it when the first morning rays 
of the sun fell upon it. Strange to say, this only happened after it had 
been repaired subsequent to the earthquake, and ceased after a second 
restoration. But it is said to have continued some 200 years, and many 
distinguished persons like Germanicus, the Emperor Hadrian, and the 
geographer Strabo visited the statue and heard the music. Some think 
these sounds were caused by the expansion of fissured portions under 
the influence of the sun's rays. Others think that a priest hid himself 
in the interior and struck a bell-sounding stone that still exists in the lap 
of the statue. One of our Arabs climbed up and struck this stone, 
which gave forth a somewhat melodius sound. Perhaps a more skilled 
performer with a suitable hammer could have made better music. 

But deeply interested as we were in these magnificent relics we 
should not have been contented to leave Thebes without paying a 
visit to that remarkable group of buildings to the south known by the 
name of Medmet Haboo. This is the name given by the Arabs to a town 
long since ruined that was built in and around three connected temples 
dating back to the days of the Pharaohs. Perhaps the town was built 
in late Roman times ; we find in it traces of a Christian church ; and its 



54 



A DO MINE IN BIB IE BANDS. 



rubbish of bricks made of sun-dried mud and chopped straw as yet only 
partly cleared away obstructs the older edifices. These consist of 
a smaller temple ascribed to Queen Hatasu or Thothmes III of the 
1 8th dynasty, a curious building variously regarded as a palace or a 
fortress and known as the Pavilion, and a large and splendid temple 
entirely built by Rameses III, of the 20th dynasty, and second only to 
that of Karnak. They are situated about half a mile south west of the 
twin Colossi of Amunoph. 

We approached first a propylon or gateway built by one of the 
Ptolemies in the second century B. C. Before it stand two great round 
columns supposed to have belonged to the colonnade of a ruined court 
never completed. Upon the pediment of the gateway is sculptured the 
disk of the sun with wings. Beyond this is a court which had a 
colonnade on either side ; then a gateway, another court, and the 
chambers of the temple including the sanctuary, ornamented with 
sculptures of sovereigns of the 18th dynasty including Queen Hatasu. 
Adjoining this smaller temple is the interesting structure called the 
Pavilion, which differs from any other Egyptian monument that we saw. 
Its walls are crowned with shield-shaped battlements in stone, the only 
specimens of such work in Egypt that have survived. It consists of two 
lodges or towers connected by zigzag wings with a central tower 
beyond ; the three standing to one another like the points of a triangle. 
They inclose a courtyard which leads by a gateway under the central 
tower to the buildings of the great temple. The two lodges are said to 
contain each three rooms, one above the other, and two more rooms over 
the gateway between them ; making eight rooms in all. Their inner 
walls are covered with painted sculptures of domestic utensils, etc. 

But the external decorations of these two lodges are most interesting. 
Here we see historical scenes represented ; Rameses III, returning 
victorious from war and presenting his prisoners to the gods, and 
receiving from Amon-ra the sword of victory with which he slays the 
prisoners. Below are seen figures of captured chiefs, which the 
inscriptions tell us are chiefs of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Libyans, 
the Sicilians, Sardinians, and Etruscans. Each of these figures shows 
the characteristic features and headdress of his race. Above these 
groups on the upper walls are some of the most unusual and most 
celebrated of Egyptian bas-reliefs. They were formerly supposed to 
delineate the domestic life of Rameses III in his harem entertained and 
waited upon by female slaves ; and in this view they confirmed the idea 



MEMORIAL TEMPLES OF THEBES. 



55 



that the building was used as a royal residence. But more recent 
students regard them as symbolic and mythological. In one of them 
e. g. the king is portrayed playing at a game like that of draughts 
with a lady. This it is thought refers to an ancient legend related by 
Herodotus. The king, it says, while he yet lived, descended into Hades 
and there played a game at draughts with the goddess Demeter or Isis, 
from whom he won a golden napkin ; in memory of which adventure 
and of the king's return to earth the Egyptians instituted a festival still 
observed in Herodotus' day. The sculpture on the wall may depict 
this legendary incident ; and the whole Pavilion may have been a piece 
of military architecture rather than a palace — a kind of fortified approach 
to the temple, utilized to commemorate the exploits of this great king, 
Rameses III. 

Behind this Pavilion, whether fortress or palace, lies the large temple 
built also by Rameses III, who as a conqueror of many nations and a 
monarch of wealth and magnificence ranks second to Rameses the 
Great. We crossed a court full of brick ruins of the late Roman or 
Coptic town that was once built amid these temples, and passing 
through a vast pro pylon some 200 feet wide entered a spacious court 
no x 135 feet. On one side of it stand seven Osiridean columns ; i. e. 
colossal statues of the king represented with the attributes of the god 
Osiris and doing service as columns. These, by the way, reveal the 
funereal character of the temple. On the other side of the court are 
eight great round columns having capitals in the form of the papyrus- 
flower. On the inner walls are engraved the warlike achievements of 
the king, who rides in his chariot and fights. He appears of heroic 
size, killing his enemies or leading along strings of captives behind his 
chariot ; then crowned in triumph and sacrificing to the gods. 

At the end of this court is a second gateway on whose eastern face 
Rameses is shown bringing captives of the Teucrians before Amon-ra ; 
and here are elaborately hieroglyphed inscriptions telling at great length 
the wars and victories of the king. Going through this granite portal 
we entered a second still larger and finer court 123 x 133 feet; having a 
single row of columns at the front and on either side and a double row 
at the end — all of them 40 feet high. The colonnade at the front and 
the one facing it are each composed of eight Osiridean pillars, while the 
one in the rear and the side rows consist of pillars with papyrus capi- 
tals. The walls here, too, are covered with sculptures. One to 
which our attention was particularly called was the festival of the 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



Sophis period held at the appearance of the star Sirius. It portrays the 
king and the sacred bull and a company of priests with shaved heads 
going in stately procession to sacrifice. Before the Julian calendar was 
devised the Egyptians made the year begin with the appearance of this 
star, and had festivals to celebrate seed-sowing and harvest. But as they 
did not correct the calendar by inserting an extra day in leap-year, in 
process of time their festivals would come out of place ; until at last 
they were actually celebrating the festival of harvest before the seed 
was yet put in the ground. In the lapse of many years however the 
calendar would right itself by coming round the circle; and this 
occurred in the days of Cheops, of Rameses, and of Hadrian, and this 
was called the completion of a Sophis period. 

We passed on to another inner court of vast size, which had six rows 
of columns eight deep ; many of them ruined and left only about eight 
feet high. Then we went outside the temple, and saw on the external 
lateral wall more representations of Rameses in war with various tribes, 
while scribes count the number of hands that have been cut from the 
bodies of the slam. One scene on this wall is the most spirited picture 
of any. It depicts the king in his chariot as encountering three lions, 
and having smitten two of them, as turning around to meet the third, 
which is about to spring upon him. Another drawing excites our indig- 
nation ; it shows a string of captives dragged on with their arms cruelly 
chained together in a way to produce torture with every step. We see 
enough to satisfy us, that this Egyptian hero, so famous and successful 
in arms like his namesake, Rameses the Great, was like him too an 
implacable and cruel monarch, vainglorious, boasting, egotistical and 
despotic. Doubtless he erected this temple, as Rameses the Great 
erected the Rameseum, in his life-time to his own memory. It was a 
funeral monument connected in purpose with the royal tomb ; as we 
have seen was the case with the temple of Koorneh, the temple of 
Queen Hatasu, the Rameseum, the Amenophium — with all the impor- 
tant edifices on the western side of the river. But like them it was ages 
ago plundered, defaced and ruined. " The day of the Lord of Hosts," 
as Isaiah* calls the day of judgment and retribution, has brought low 
the work of the proud and lofty kings of Thebes. Their splendid city 
has passed away leaving few vestiges behind. Their massive temples 
have fallen into fragments, and their colossal statues have crumbled, 
and their stately tombs have been rifled of their treasures and their 



* Isa. 2:12. 



MEMORIAL TEMPLES OF THEBES. 



57 



kingly occupants, and the very race who built these enduring structures 
has disappeared as completely from the land as the old Romans, who 
once conquered and ruled the world, have disappeared from Italy. The 
day of the Lord has indeed been upon Egypt and humbled her in the 
dust. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Denderah and the Boulak Museum. 

AVING seen all the wonders of Thebes, and having exchanged 
calls with the American Consul at Luxor, (who was not an 
American, but a dignified old Arab, dressed in a spotless white 
robe and white turban, and who could not speak English, but talked 
with us through his son, a glib dealer in so-called " antiquities," ) we 
started at length upon our return voyage down the Nile. The sky was 
as always sunny and bright, and the air pleasantly cool in the shade of 
our deck-awning ; not chilly with dampness, but dry and invigorating, 
like the air of our great plains. The scenery too reminded me of our 
western country; it was much like that of the Platte river in Nebraska 
with its bluffs and broad plains, though of course the Platte is a much 
smaller river than the Nile. After about five hours' steaming we stopped 
on the left or western bank, opposite the modern town of Keneh, which 
is noted for its manufacture of porous clay-jugs and filtering water-bot- 
tles, and went ashore to visit the temple of Denderah j the last one that 
we saw in Egypt, and the last important one that was built there. It 
was begun by the last of the Ptolemies; was finished by the Roman 
Emperor Tiberius, 34 A. D., and the decorations were added by the 
Emperor Nero. It was still comparatively new and gorgeous, when in 
A. D. 379 the ancient religion was abolished under the edict of the 
Emperor Theodosius. 

We mounted donkeys on the river's bank and rode nearly two miles 
to the huge pile of masonry, that is surrounded by the ruins of a mud 
village built over and about it at a later date. We stopped before a 
handsome pylon that was built by the Roman emperors, Domitian and 
Trajan, and is adorned with sculptures representing them as engaged in 
acts of worship before several divinities. Then we proceeded on foot 
up a long walk between modern mud-brick walls to the portico of the 



D END ERA H AND THE BOULAK MUSEUM. 



temple. Twenty feet below the present level of the ground a dromos 
or avenue once led from the gateway to the portico, but it has not yet 
been excavated. Nor has this twenty feet of debris been removed 
from the base of the portico; not more than two-thirds of the actual 
height of the latter is seen from without, and one must descend a 
stair-case to reach the floor of the temple within. 

Yet the portico seen as it is produces upon the beholder an impres- 
sion of overwhelming majesty. It is about 135 feet wide, and is 
supported by 24 round columns in four rows of six each, that are fifty 
feet high and seven feet in diameter. Their capitals are unlike any we 
saw elsewhere, having the face of Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, carved 
on each of their four sides, and above these faces the figure of a house 
or shrine — the house of Horus. Most of these faces have been hacked 
and mutilated by the spoilers who ravaged the temple, plundered its 
treasures, and desecrated its sacred places. But they only marred, they 
did not destroy, the beauty and grandeur of these columns. Nor did 
they reach the sculptures on the architrave of the portico, which repre- 
sent a procession of priests and warriors bearing standards and women 
playing the harp and tambourine and other musical instruments. 

We descended the steps and entered the temple, passing from the 
brilliant sunshine into twilight, silence and mystery, and into a heavy 
atmosphere as of a long closed and unventilated building. Viewed from 
within, the portico appears a roofed hall resting on these ponderous Ha- 
thor-headed columns. On its ceiling, smoked black by the fires and torches 
of the Arabs who occupied the temple before its excavation, is engraved 
the zodiac. While everywhere on its walls and pillars and doorways 
are hieroglyphic inscriptions, grotesque figures, hawk-headed, ibis- 
headed, Hathor-headed, serpents walking on human legs, pictures of 
gods and kings holding strange emblems and performing strange rites. 
Back of this portico we entered a roofed hall quite dark, supported by 
a double row of columns — three on each side • and beyond it a second 
and third chamber of the same breadth, but shorter, and then the sanc- 
tuary. On each side of these chambers are many small apartments, 
about twenty of them j there are also two side passages to the exterior 
of the temple and two stair-cases to its roof. Each one of these rooms 
bears on its walls the pictorial record of the use to which it was put. 
Thus it is determined that the first hall was the hall of entrance ; the 
second a hall of assembly ; the third was the hall where the sacred 
boats were kept ■ and the sanctuary contained in a niche in its wall the 



6o 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



golden emblem of the goddess. Some of the side-chambers were labo- 
ratories, and their walls show bas-reliefs of flasks and vases for perfumes 
and unguents. Others were used to store offerings and tribute. Others 
were for vestments of the priests and sacred utensils. And others were 
shrines of divinities. 

Holding our dim tapers in our hands we went down by long, winding 
passages into the crypts or subterranean corridors, where the bats have 
found comfortable quarters, and there we found the walls decorated as 
profusely with finely cut work as those above ground. Then we climbed 
one of the stair-cases to the roof ; and on its walls we saw a represen- 
tation of the sacred procession just as it used to mount this stair-case ■ 
the king at the head, the standard-bearers, priests, attendants carrying 
offerings ; all seemed to be walking up in ghostly line. Much of the 
temple worship consisted in these stately processions, when the images 
of the gods, in costly robes, were paraded along the corridors and 
around the roof, and were borne through the groves of the temple- 
inclosure. On the top we entered a small chamber that was the shrine 
of the goddess Nut ; who was portrayed by a gigantic painted figure 
extending around three sides of the square ceiling ; her body from the 
head to the seat occupying one side, the arms and hands a second side, 
and the legs and feet the third side — a ludicrous figure. Another roof- 
chamber was a shrine of Osiris, on whose inner walls were depicted the 
death and resurrection of the god. Descending by another stair-case 
we observed on its wall a bas-relief of Cleopatra's face. But we saw a 
more famous picture of her on the exterior of the rear-wall of the tem- 
ple — a full-length figure of the queen with her son Cesario and the god- 
dess Isis facing her, and standing in front of her the ruling Ptolemy at 
the time when the temple was built. Her face is handsome, but 
whether a portrait or an ideal, we do not know. 

This whole temple of Hathor is still in a good state of preservation, 
less ruined than the temples at Thebes, though not completely exca- 
vated from the rubbish of the mud-village that was built around it. 
There are two smaller temples in its neighborhood, one of which, called 
the birth-place of Horus, we visited. Then we mounted our patient 
donkeys and rode back to the steamer ■ hailed on the way by crowds of 
children, among them many boys entirely nude, or wearing only crowns 
and aprons of woven grass, who clamored for backsheesh. This seems 
to be the first word the children learn ; at Thebes we saw one little 



D END E RAH AND THE B O ULAK MUSE UM. 6 r 

fellow, scarcely three years old, who cried lustily for backsheesh as we 
rode by. 

Our experiences on the steamboat, on the return-trip, were so similar 
to those we had ascending the Nile, that they need not be repeated. 
About four o'clock m the afternoon of the first day we reached the vil- 
lage of Farshoot, where we anchored for the night ; and we all went 
ashore to see how an Arab village looks. As we walked through the 
streets we were as much of a curiosity to the natives as they were to us ; 
and after we had passed through the bazaars and seen their pitifully 
small store of goods and reached the market-place, we had nearly the 
whole town following us. The streets were narrow and dirty; the 
houses one-story high, built of mud and chopped straw and thatched 
usually with a few sugar-canes and reeds. The doors were low, about 
five feet high, and inside no chairs, no tables, no bedsteads or beds, no 
floors ; a stove, if it might be called such, made of dried mud, but no 
chimney ; but there is little cooking to do. The bread sold in their shops 
was black-looking rolls or cakes ; beside this the people live mainly on 
milk, sugar-cane, dried dates, split peas, beans and onions. Sometimes 
they can catch fish from the river, but seldom get meat to eat. The 
chickens and eggs must be sold by the poor people for the better class 
and for foreigners to consume. I saw a man buying coffee at a bazaar, 
and all he bought was a small handful, carefully weighed out by the 
dealer upon his scales. We gained from our walk through Farshoot a 
lasting impression of the poverty and wretchedness of the Egyptian 
masses. 

Next morning we resumed our voyage, with the north wind blowing 
very fresh, which considerably retarded our progress, and was so cool that 
it was uncomfortable to sit on deck, even with a heavy overcoat on. 
We reached our destination, Sohag, early in the afternoon, and took a 
stroll through the town, which is a larger and more important place than 
Farshoot, though most of the houses are no better. Passing through 
the narrow, dirty streets and the bazaars, some of which exhibited a 
respectable stock of goods, we went out to a date-palm grove on the 
edge of the town, where a market was held that day. It was crowded 
with people who had come in from the country round about, with their 
donkeys and camels, which they tethered along-side their stands of 
business. The goods offered for sale were spread out on pieces of 
coarse canvass laid on the ground, and the dealers squatted behind 
them. Here were men making or cobbling slippers, and there others 



02 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



were mending tins or weaving baskets. In one place beads, bracelets 
and all kinds of trinkets were sold; in another, vegetables; in another, 
fruits ; in another, cotton cloth, etc. They had also a market for sheep 
and cattle. Our appearance created a mild sensation, so that we soon 
had a crowd of children at our heels, clamoring for backsheesh. Most 
of the women we saw were tattooed between the eyes and on their chin 
— a fashion that does not enhance their beauty in western eyes. They 
were modestly veiled, except the dancing-girls, so-called, who were con- 
spicuously dressed in bright colored garments, with many rows of gilded 
ornaments suspended from the neck, and showed prematurely old and 
hard faces. 

From Sohag we started by rail, at day-break, for Cairo, shivering in 
the cool morning air, in which one could see his breath. How do these 
poor people, we asked, who have no beds or blankets, bnt sleep on 
cane-rushes or on the bare ground, in only their cotton garments, stand 
this cold ? They must possess a great deal of physical endurance, 
slender as their figures are and scanty their diet. This seemed the 
more evident, as we rode north and observed that most of the houses 
here were built of sugar-canes, interwoven with rushes or cane leaves 
and thatched with the same, being open towards the south — mere 
booths, rather than houses. The air grew warmer towards noon, 
however, and the dust became very thick and unpleasant, as when we 
came up the river, and the flies were so numerous that we were of the 
opinion Moses' fourth plague had never been entirely removed from 
Egypt ! About seven in the evening we reached Cairo and drove to 
our hotel, glad to get back to civilization, after the discomforts of our 
long journey, though delighted that we had been able to visit the mar- 
vellous ruins of Upper Egypt. 

Of the sights that we saw upon our return, one had best be men- 
tioned in connection with these antiquities of the upper country, a host 
of which it conserves, viz. : the Boulak Museum. This museum is 
scarcely thirty years old yet ; it was the creation of the late Khedive 
Ismail Pasha, before whose time the rulers of the country took little 
interest in its famous remains, and allowed them to be torn down or 
dug up and carried awa) by foreigners, to enrich the museums of 
Europe. But Ismail Pasha put a stop to this deportation of treasures, 
and employed the accomplished Orientalist, Mariette, to conduct exca- 
vations and make a state collection of relics. The result is a museum 
now handsomely housed in new buildings at Ghizeh, the richest in the 



BENDER AH AND THE BOULAK MUSEUM. - 63 



world in all kinds of Egyptian antiquities, mostly recovered from the 
tombs. The scholar spends many days of profitable study here ; but 
even the hurried tourist finds it difficult to tear himself away from a 
place of so much fascination. 

The grounds, in which the museum is situated, are adorned not only 
with trees and shrubs and a miniature lake, but with old Egyptian sym- 
bols. Facing the entrance there stands a sphinx of modern construc- 
tion, and further within one sees a pointed obelisk and a great stone 
sarcophagus. I will not attempt to describe all that we saw in the 
building, but the mention of a few things may serve to indicate what 
treasures it contains. In the first room we entered we saw the cele- 
brated sitting statues of Ra-hotep and Nefert, found in the same tomb, 
at Medum, dating back to 2400 B. C. ; and a couple of offering slabs, 
made of alabaster, with two lion-heads at one end and a cup at the 
other end to receive the libation. In other rooms we saw a small statue 
of the 4th dynasty, found only last year at Sakkarah ; many tombstones 
of ordinary people ; a sitting statue in black marble of Chephren, who 
built the second pyramid at Ghizeh ; the front portion of the tomb of a 
priest in the 4th or 5th dynasty, in which the red and yellow and black 
colors of the inscription remain fresh; a small statue of a man sitting 
cross-legged and grieving; a bas-relief 2500 B. C, representing a com- 
pany of musicians, of whom one is tuning a harp and another giving the 
time, and ladies dancing ; small figures of men kneading bread ; and a 
wooden sarcophagus forty centuries old, on which the painting is vivid 
still. In one room were several fine sarcophagi of red granite ; in 
another, ancient wooden boats and figures of rowers in them, of the 
same shape and style as those we saw depicted on the walls of the 
temple of Queen Hatasu, at Thebes. Here were colossal heads of 
Rameses in gray granite • and there a representation of a boat carrying 
a sarcophagus, both hewn out of red granite. Elsewhere we saw bronze 
statues of Osiris and of Isis Athor with horns on her head and Horus in 
her lap, and of the sacred bull that was worshipped. There was an 
extensive collection of jewelry— gold necklaces, ear-rings, bracelets, 
amulets — taken from the tombs. In one case are 140 pieces of jewelry 
that were taken from Ra-hotep's tomb. And there are porous clay 
vessels and vases and lamps and alabaster-boxes for ointment and 
mathematical instruments and papyrus-rolls and masks and sandals and 
wooden pillows and chairs and ploughs and rakes and combs and cabi- 
nets full of scarabaei or sacred beetles carved in precious stones. 



64 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



But the most interesting sight of all in this Museum is the mummies 
of the kings that were discovered in the Her-Hor mortuary chamber at 
Dar-el-Bahari in 1881, and brought by Brugsch Bey to this place. The 
beautifully gilded and painted caskets in which these mummies were 
found are kept in a hall by themselves, and in an adjoining corridor are 
several other caskets of similar splendor, on the front of which one sees 
a picture of the soul escaping as a winged creature from the mummy. 
Thence we passed into the hall of the mighty dead, and paused by the 
mummy of Rameses the Great — the oppressor of the Israelites, the 
monarch who reigned 67 years, the father of 119 children, the builder 
who finished the temples of Luxor and Karnah and Koorneh, and erec- 
ted the Rameseum and a multitude of other temples, and vast cities as 
well — the greatest of Egyptian kings. Here lay his blackened and 
withered corse, stripped of all its gold ornaments and jewels, a shriv- 
elled and loathsome thing. How truly we may apply to him the lan- 
guage that Isaiah uses of the king of Babylon : " They that see thee 
shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying, Is this the man 
that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms ; that made 
the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof? * * * 
All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in 
his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable 
branch." * 

And the same language seemed appropriate when we looked at the 
mummy of Rameses' father, Seti I, who was also a great warrior, and 
whose tomb we saw at Thebes — the most sumptuously decorated of all 
the tombs. Or when we looked upon Thothmes the conqueror; or 
upon that brilliant soldier and administrator, Rameses III, who con- 
structed the palace and temple at Medinet Haboo, and whose brown 
face was the most kingly and impressive of them all. As we passed 
from one coffined form to another, and read the names and recalled 
what we had read of the careers of these and the other kings who lie 
there, I could think only of the words of Scripture, " How are the 
mighty fallen ! " f These men who once awed an empire, who were 
looked upon while they lived as little less than gods, and were deified 
and worshipped when dead, are now a show for sight-seers. Their land 
is owned and ruled by strangers; their mighty cities are but mounds of 
rubbish ; their magnificent temples but ruins. The proud and lofty 



* Lsa. 14 : 16-19. 



f II Sam. 1 : 27. 



DENDERAH AND THE BOULAK MUSEUM. 65 



have been brought low. And we learn anew the lesson, of the vanity 
of human pomp but the imperishableness of God's word. "All the glory 
of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower 
thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever."* 

* I Pet. 1 : 24, 25. 



5 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Copts, and American Missions in Egypt. 

F course it was to be expected that Christian tradition would fix 
upon certain places in Egypt as connected with the visit and 
residence of the Holy Family in that land.* This it has done. 
One legend makes the city called by the Greeks Lycopolis, now the 
city of Siout, on the upper Nile, the abode of Joseph and Mary and the 
child Jesus during their stay in Egypt. It is however quite improbable 
that they should have penetrated so far, several hundred miles, from the 
eastern border of the country where they entered it. More probable is 
the tradition that they sojourned at Matarea, in the vicinity of Leon- 
topolis, in Lower Egypt. Visitors to Cairo are accommodated by still 
another tradition, which points out a venerable Coptic church within 
the bounds of old Cairo, as built over a cave in which Joseph and Mary 
and the Child rested, when they fled into this land of refuge. It is said 
that an older church was first built over this cave to preserve the site, 
and that the present building succeeded the earlier one. When we were 
in the city we went to see this interesting edifice. 

It is situated in a small Coptic village on the edge of Old Cairo and 
near some great mounds of brick-rubbish, that are on the reputed site 
of Joseph's granaries. The village is wholly inclosed by a high wall to 
keep out intruders and protect its Christian inhabitants from the possi- 
ble outbreak of fanaticism on the part of their Mohammedan neighbors. 
There is but a single entrance to the village, which we found closed by 
a thick wooden door covered outside with iron. At our request, and of 
course upon payment of the usual fees, the door was opened for us ; 
and our attention was directed by our guide to its singular lock. This 
seemed to be merely a heavy wooden bar running into a slot in a post 
on the inside ; as we often see barn -yard gates fastened in our own 

* See Matt. 2 : 13-15. 




THE COPTS, AND AMERICAN MISSIONS. 67 



country. But it was so arranged that the bar once run in could not 
be drawn out again without the use of a curious key — a piece of wood 
about eighteen inches long having four iron spikes driven into one end 
of it. This makes the gate-keeper or key-keeper an important func- 
tionary. 

The village, we were told, is 11 00 or 1200 years old. It is composed 
mostly of two-story houses with projecting wooden lattices instead of 
windows on the upper story, and the paved streets are exceedingly 
narrow and dark — too narrow for vehicles to enter.. We left our 
carriages outside the gate, and walked through winding alleys to the 
church, a small, ancient-looking building quite devoid of external 
ornament. The interior is divided off into compartments by high 
wooden screens ; the women occupy one compartment, the men 
another, and the priests and the altar the inmost compartment or 
chancel. The wood-carvings on the inner screen that shuts off the 
chancel from the remainder of the church are finely done ; they repre- 
sent the Virgin Mary and various saints. There are also some quaint 
old paintings above the screen. We descended into the crypt below 
the church, which they say was a cave when the Holy Family fled into 
Egypt. A niche at one end of the crypt is shown as the place where 
the Virgin rested, and a cross carved in the stone marks the spot. 
Another niche and cross mark the spot where Joseph rested. In 
another niche is a representation in stone of the Child's manger. And 
in another is the baptismal font where they baptize the children of the 
village, immersing them three times ; the boys when forty days old and 
the girls when two months old. At the head of the stairs where we 
ascended the attendant showed us a very old picture of the Flight into 
Egypt ; a picture that they value highly. 

These Copts are an interesting people for two reasons. One is that 
they are the descendants of the native inhabitants of Egypt at the time 
of the Mohammedan conquest ; derived partly from the ancient Egyp- 
tians, partly from the mixed races that inhabited the country under the 
Roman empire. Their language is the old language of the tombs and 
the temples, somewhat corrupted by the later introduction of Greek 
words and grammatical forms, and is written in the Greek alphabet, to 
which eight new characters were added from the Demotic to repre- 
sent sounds of the Egyptian tongue not found in the Greek. This 
Coptic language is perhaps as much like the language of the Pharaohs 
as the English language of to-day is like that used by Chaucer. It is 



68 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



still employed for the most part in the services of the Coptic churches,, 
though unintelligible to the people who speak Arabic like their Moham- 
medan neighbors, to whom they have assimilated in many respects. 
Thus they dress like the Mohammedans, and their women veil their 
faces like the Mohammedan women. In numbers they are less than 
one-fourteenth of the population and are dwindling, as many of them 
become converted to Mohammedanism. 

The other feature of interest presented by the Copts is that they are 
Christians, and remain witnesses to the fact that Christianity once 
nourished greatly in Egypt. Alexandria in the early centuries of the 
Christian church was one of the patriarchal sees. In its schools 
Clement and Origen expounded theology and introduced into it the 
Platonic philosophy. Here Athanasius the champion of orthodoxy thun- 
dered against Arianism, and successfully maintained in the creeds of the 
church the fundamental doctrine of the deity of Christ. Egypt was a- 
centre of Christianity in those days ; though as in other countries the 
people generally did not grasp the vital, spiritual truths of religion, 
but were contented with its outward forms and observances, into which 
were brought many practices from heathenism. Christianity soon 
became corrupt here as elsewhere, and the Coptic church has preserved 
to this day these early corruptions with its independent organization. 
For it is neither Roman Catholic nor Greek Catholic nor Armenian, 
but has its own system of government, doctrine, and worship. Its 
religious orders are indeed similar to those of the Greek church, and so 
are many of its religious observances. But its faith is rather that of the 
heretical sect called Eutychians, Monophysites, and Monothelites, 
whose doctrine was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon as 
controverting the orthodox view in regard to the two natures in Christ. 

These Copts at present though nominal Christians are in sad need of 
the gospel. Until enlightened through the labors of our American mis- 
sionaries of the United Presbyterian church, they and even their priests 
were with few exceptions ignorant of the word of God. " With them 
the chief ground of salvation was the keeping of the fifty-five days of 
fasting and prayer, and the way of salvation was confession to and 
absolution by the priest. Their only apprehension of the merits of 
Christ's obedience and sufferings was that these conferred on the church 
the power of saving souls. They knew nothing about conversion by the 
Holy Spirit. The worshipping of pictures, confession to priests and 
belief in their authority to forgive sin, belief in transubstantiation and 



THE COPTS, AND AMERICAN MISSIONS. 



69 



in the intercession of the saints, were universal." Their religious 
services were conducted in a dead language ; they had no preaching, 
no schools, no literature to instruct them. What wonder that they, 
though bearing the name of Christians, are almost as destitute of true 
piety and as degraded in morals as the Mohammedans themselves ? 
They need the gospel of the grace of God. 

And yet while one is constrained to speak in these terms of the 
religious condition of the Copts, it is true that the followers of the False 
Prophet occupy an even lower depth of error, superstition, and 
fanaticism. Some account of these features of Mohammedanism has 
been given in the chapter upon the Mosques of Cairo ; but we saw an 
illustration of them at the convent of the Howling and Whirling 
Dervishes that may be mentioned here as especially striking. On 
every Friday, a which is the Mohammedan Sabbath, at two o'clock P. M., 
these dervishes or monks give a performance, as we should call it ; 
though with them it is an observance of religious worship after their 
custom. We drove to their monastery, which is situated between 
Modern Cairo and Old Cairo, and found outside a great number of 
carriages that had brought visitors like ourselves to see the weird 
exercises. Passing through a court -yard we were shown into a large 
square hall on the ground-floor, whose roof was a single dome with 
windows in it. The place was like none of the mosques we had seen ; 
no apse in the wall pointing toward Mecca, no pulpit, no lamps, no 
prayer-carpets or mats ; but around three sides of the room were placed 
chairs, in which the visitors sat, while a clear space of floor in front of 
the fourth side was covered with matting, on which were spread in the 
form of a crescent sheepskins for the dervishes to sit on when they 
snould come in. 

Presently they came in through a side door, and sat down cross-legged 
on the sheepskins. There were about thirty of them, varying in age 
from old men of sixty to youths of eighteen or twenty; the majority of 
them appeared to be from thirty to forty-five years old. Their leader 
was a tall, stout man, about forty-five years of age, having a black beard 
and moustache trimmed short, who sat facing the others and signalled 
them with uplifted finger when to stop one exercise and begin another. 
One man played a flute ; several others at times beat rude drums. The 
leader started a slow chant, reciting the name of Allah, i. <?., God, and 
bowing forward and back again, in which exercise all joined. Next 
they chanted while bowing the body to right and left. Then the leader 



7o 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



accelerated the time ; the music swelled forth, and the chorus roared 
more loudly Ld ilahd UF Allah, while they bowed their heads to and fro, 
right and left, with great rapidity. By this time they were getting 
warmed up. They rose to their feet, and those who wore caftans or 
long quilted gowns stripped them off and appeared clad in loose cotton 
garments, and they settled down to business. They began to bow their 
heads towards the ground and back again, and to chant louder and 
quicker till their voices grew hoarse, and they made a barking noise like 
a dog. They went on, bowing forward till their hands touched the 
ground, and bowing backward till I feared they would break their 
spines, and instead of barking made a peculiar noise by drawing in and 
letting out the breath. Four of them had very long hair, reaching 
nearly to their waists, and as they bowed it waved up and down in a 
frantic and ludicrous style. 

Then they swung around, facing first the right and then the left, 
bowing in the same way. Next they wagged their heads to and fro 
violently till it seemed as though they would shake them off. Then 
they resumed bowing forward, while the drums were beaten fiercely, and 
one of them entered the ring and began to whirl round and round with 
both hands extended, his head inclined on one side and his eyes closed. 
He whirled for six minutes by my watch, which seemed an incredibly 
long time to do it without becoming dizzy enough to fall. He came back 
into the circle, and another tried the whirling ; but only whirled about 
two minutes — the others meanwhile exercising violently and snorting, 
and the drums beating furiously. Then the performance suddenly 
ceased at a signal from the leader. The men crowded about him and 
put a hand inside of his hands ; he pressed them, and each took his 
hand out and kissed it ; and all filed out of the room. It was a wild, 
weird performance, calculated to make a nervous person hysterical ; yet 
the ladies present seemed unmoved and enjoyed it as well as the gen- 
tlemen. 

But these frenzied gymnastics are offered, as has been stated, in wor- 
ship. The panting, exhausted dervishes, some of whom at times fall 
writhing in convulsions, and all of whom seem to have temporarily gone 
mad, think that they are honoring God by their antics. They are re- 
garded by the Mohammedan people as holy men, saints, because they 
devote themselves to the culture of this mode of worship. All their 
strength is given to God, it is thought ; their prayers must be peculiarly 
acceptable to Him, and they must stand high in His favor. Alas ! 



THE COPTS, AND AMERICAN MISSIONS. 71 



what religious ignorance and superstition underlie these "vain repe- 
titions " of the name of Allah and these bowings and whirlings ! How 
greatly do these Mohammedans need to be taught, that as Paul says, 
" Bodily exercise profiteth little ; but godliness is profitable unto all things, 
having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come."* 
Nothing but the gospel of Christ can dispel the darkness of fanaticism 
that enshrouds this naturally intelligent people, and can show them how 
to "live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world."! 

It is gratifying to know that this precious gospel is being brought to 
the attention both of Moslems and Copts by earnest missionaries from 
our own country. To the United Presbyterian Church of America 
Providence has allotted the privilege of conducting missions in Egypt, 
the youngest of the great nations thus sending spiritual aid to the oldest. 
This mission was established in 1854, and during most of its existence 
has been the only Protestant mission in Egypt. So early as 1826 the 
Church Missionary Society of England commenced work here, sending 
out several missionaries, who preached, distributed the Scriptures and 
tracts, opened schools, and cultivated friendly relations with the Coptic, 
Greek, and Armenian clergy — seeking to influence them to reform their 
respective churches. But this effort met with small success ; the corpse 
of the Coptic church could not be galvanized into life • and after the 
American mission was established the field was practically left to it. 
More recently the Church Missionary Society has resumed operations, 
but not in a way to interfere with the United Presbyterians, who rather 
welcome its assistance. 

In Cairo I had the pleasure of meeting Rev. Dr. Watson of the 
American Mission, and he furnished me with some information about 
their work. They have a force of 3 1 foreign missionaries, male and 
female, and 282 native laborers — pastors, licentiates, theological stu- 
dents, colporteurs, harem-workers, and teachers. The foreign mission- 
aries are located at seven principal stations, viz : Alexandria, Tanta, 
Mansoura, Cairo, Maghagha, Siout, and Luxor, being distributed so as 
to supervise the work in all the provinces of the country. They have 
32 organized congregations and 112 unorganized mission stations, some 
4,000 communicants, 6,800 pupils in their week-day schools, and 5,500 
Sunday-school scholars. Their woman's work for women in the harems 
is a deeply interesting branch of their mission, through which they read 
and explain the Bible to the native women, and teach them to read it 



*I Tim. 4:8. 



t Titus 2:12. 



72 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



for themselves, inculcate habits of cleanliness and thrifty housekeeping, 
and by personal influence elevate their sentiments. While their schools 
are in many quarters the hope of the country. Under the present 
administration the Egyptian Government schools in the larger cities 
have been greatly improved, but nothing has been done for primary 
schools in the villages. The American mission schools remain alone in 
providing education for the children of the peasant class. At Luxor 
we were pleased to observe for ourselves the superior air of intelligence 
and respectability that belonged to the boys educated m these schools • 
while the girls share the benefits of Christian instruction, one-third of 
the pupils being girls. 

The Coptic church itself has noticeably felt the influence of this 
American missionary work. Early in the history of the enterprise the 
missionaries were convinced that the best way to reform the Coptic 
church was to work outside of it, and to organize a body of active 
evangelical Christians, who by their consistent example and modes of 
Christian effort would stimulate the Copts to do something for them- 
selves. The results already justify this policy. They are seen in the 
larger use made of the vernacular, instead of a dead language, in the 
services of the Coptic church \ in the disuse of picture-worship, and in 
some places the removal of the pictures from the church proper to an 
adjoining room ; in the establishment of schools, the organization of 
religious and literary societies, meetings for the study of the Scriptures 
and prayer, and the introduction of public preaching sometimes in con- 
nection with church services. The younger and better educated Copts 
are on friendly terms with the missionaries and the native evangelical 
church, and often invite the mission -workers to meet with them and 
even conduct their religious services. They say themselves, that their 
desire to reform their own church is the result of the work of the Ameri- 
can mission. And so the outlook is hopeful ; there may yet be in Egypt 
an evangelical Coptic church, such as existed there in the second cen- 
tury of the Christian era. 

The next day after my interview with the Rev. Dr. Watson and our 
conversation about the missionary work in which he is engaged, we 
regretfully left Cairo, and proceeded by rail to Ismailia, on the Suez 
Canal. We were to go up the canal to Port Said, on the Mediterranean, 
and thence by steamer to the Holy Land. It was a little foggy that 
morning — the first time since we entered Egypt that the air had not 
been perfectly clear. Our fast express train carried us through a graz- 



THE COPTS, AND AMERICAN MISSIONS. 



ing country first, then through a region of grain-fields and cotton, and 
then one of date-palms. At the city of Zagazig the railroad from Alex- 
andria connected with ours. Half a mile from the station are the exca- 
vated ruins of the great temple of Bubastis, the ancient city of Pi-Bast, 
which we saw from the car-window and were sorry we could not visit, 
as the mural sculptures there, representing a great festival given by the 
king, are reported to be particularly interesting. Here we came into 
" the land of Goshen," as it is called in the book of Genesis, where 
Joseph settled his father and his brethren with their flocks and herds 
in a fertile section well adapted to a pastoral people, and in a situation 
where it would be easiest for them to leave Egypt and return to the 
promised land when the time should come. While the Hyksos Pha- 
raoh, in whose reign they came in, was no doubt glad to place them 
where they would be a barrier to any hostile incursions from Asia. We 
crossed the whole width of the land of Goshen in going from Bubastis 
eastward to Tell-el-Kebir. and reached its northern border at Ismailia. 

At Tell-el-Kebir was pointed out to us the field of battle in 1882, 
between the British and the revolting forces of Arabi Pasha; after which 
victory the British cavalry rode hastily to Cairo, and captured the cita- 
del in the early morning, before the people had yet heard of the battle. 
For twelve years since England has held Egypt under her protectorate, 
and made it practically a dependency. It was not intended to do this 
when England interfered to put down Arabi's revolt ; but there has 
never been a day since Tell-el-Kebir when she could have withdrawn 
her garrison and left Egypt to govern itself without bringing disaster 
upon the country. It would have been a crime to have interfered at 
all. had the English retired. The only ground on which the invasion of 
1882 can be justified, is the policy of taking a firm hold upon Egypt, 
reforming the administration, restoring the national credit, and govern- 
ing the country justly. It is a work for civilization which England has 
been compelled to do, and which she cannot now abandon, for no sub- 
stitute for her supremacy can be found. 

Beyond Tell-el-Kebir we struck into the desert, where only a little 
sage-brush and a few stunted and straggling palm-trees broke the mo- 
notony of the sands, till we came to Ismailia, a new town that has 
been built up as the railroad terminus and the point of embarkation on 
the Suez Canal. It is situated nearly midway on the canal, the distance 
being 42 miles to Port Said, at the northern end of the canal, and 38 
miles to Suez at the southern end. It is built among the torrid sands 



74 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



but its avenues are gravelled and lined with trees that have grown to a 
good size since the town was founded in 1862, and named after the 
Khedive at that time, Ismail. Here we went aboard a little steamer 
that had been reserved for our party. Though the sun was hot, the 
breeze blew cool from the north, and it grew cooler and stronger all the 
way. The canal at first ran through Lake Timsah, which is about five 
miles long, and after emerging from the lake went through a deep cut 
in the sand-hills about nine miles in length and 100 feet deep. Here 
it was narrower than above where it widened out to 300 feet, and in 
some places was still wider. 

Among other stations we passed that of Kantarah, which is on the 
old caravan route from Syria to Egypt. The ancient road ran in the 
same direction as the canal, which cuts its western edge, as we could 
plainly see. This was probably the locality where the people from Asia 
entered to settle Egypt. It was celebrated as the birth-place of the god 
Horus. West of Kantarah are the ruins of the city of Daphne, the 
Taphannes of the Bible, and there are other ruins in the neighborhood. 
Further up the canal we saw over its high bank on the right, a couple 
of miles back, a long white line that turned out to be a host of pelicans 
drawn up in line like a regiment awaiting military inspection. After we 
had passed they took wing and flew across the canal to Lake Menzaleh 
to fish for their supper. Towards sun-down they fly this way, and 
towards sun-rise they fly back to the east side of the canal and stay 
there during the day. This Lake Menzaleh lies mainly on the west side 
of the canal and is shallow and marshy, but on the east side the land is 
also very low, and much of it in Winter is covered with water which 
dries up in the Summer. 

Further on we saw to the left the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which 
here flows into the Mediterranean, and crossing it we came to Port 
Said about half-past six o'clock in the evening. This is a considerable 
city of 20,000 population, and a great deal of commercial business cen- 
tres here, as it is on the route to India and all the Indian and Mediter- 
ranean steamers touch at this port. It is a modern town, regularly laid 
out on foundations consisting chiefly of materials excavated from the 
canal, and it has extensive docks and quays and basins and a splendid 
roadstead lying between two long breakwaters built of artificial con- 
crete. Here we rested over Sunday, and attended religious service at 
the English church, a building that looks like a Mohammedan mosque, 
but with a cross on the top of the dome. A large number of English 



THE COPTS, AND AMERICAN MISSIONS. 75 



sailors in blue shirts, and a few red-coated English soldiers were seated 
in front of us, and joined reverently in the service. It seemed a happy 
coincidence, that our first day in Egypt was a Sunday spent in Alex- 
andria and our last day was a Sunday spent in Port Said. 

And how much we had seen and enjoyed during those intervening 
days of sunshine ! Surely there is no country in the world where the 
American visitor finds so much to fascinate him as in this land of the 
mighty Pharaohs. European countries offer him a host of attractions, 
but these possess vastly less of novelty and antiquity than the hoar 
monuments of Egypt. The extreme Orient may equally awaken and 
gratify his curiosity, but its history is less associated with Occidental in- 
terests. Palestine is indeed more closely identified with the progress 
and the sacred hopes of the race, but that often-ravaged land offers the 
visitor so few remains of past grandeur to behold that his uppermost 
feeling is one of disappointment. In Egypt he finds the charm of former 
potency still lingering, the memorials of the earliest civilization to in- 
vestigate, a strange social order to study, a history compact with signifi- 
cance and bearing on the destinies of the world. With reluctance he 
leaves this land of solemn mystery, typified by the Sphinx of Ghizeh, 
whose stony impenetrable countenance forever after haunts his visions. 



PART II. 



THE HOLY LAND. 



CHAPTER X. 



Jaffa. 

HE ancient Joppa, or modern Jaffa, has been from early times the 
sea-port of Jerusalem, from which city it is distant about forty 
miles northwest. We sailed thither from Port Said in thirteen 
hours by the splendid steamer Irrawaddy, of the French line, the Mes- 
sageries Maritimes — a large vessel, some 375 feet long and of 4,000 
tons burden — on whose ample deck, covered with awning, and in whose 
elegant saloons we were very comfortable. Among the cabin-passen- 
gers many nationalities were represented; but still greater were the 
diversities of race and country exhibited among the deck passengers, of 
whom we had a host on board. There were brown-skinned Egyptians, 
and black Nubians, and coffee-colored Arabs, and swarthy Greeks and 
Italians, and olive-complexioned Syrians, and a sprinkling of East Indi- 
ans, whose straight European features contrast so strangely with their 
dark skins. Some wore shawls over their heads, and some turbans, and 
some red fezzes, and some hats. Some were bare-footed and bare- 
legged } others wore red or yellow slippers, and a few, shoes. With their 
baggage and bedding they filled the forward deck, while the clamor of 
their numerous tongues, all alike unintelligible to us, reminded us of 
Babel. 

As we approached Jaffa, it looked very commanding, being situated 
on a hill a hundred and fifty feet high, that slopes toward the water in 
terrace after terrace of flat-roofed houses. We anchored a mile from 
shore ; as there is a line of rocks running parallel with the latter, and 
between these rocks a passage only about a hundred feet wide which 
admits small vessels to the shallow harbor within, but is not accessible 
to larger ernes. Nor is it safe to anchor near these rocks ; since a strong 
west wind might spring up and drive a vessel upon them. There is a 
wider entrance to the harbor on the northwest, but that is little used, 




So 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



on account of its distance from the town. And there is a small bay 
south of the town, called the Moon-pool, which was probably the 
ancient harbor, to which were floated the rafts of cedars of Lebanon 
and other timber from Tyre for the building of Solomon's temple,* and 
also of Zerubbabel's or the second temple ; | but this has long since been 
closed up by sand and mud brought from the Nile by the current that 
sweeps along the coast, and that destroyed the ancient ports of Pelusium 
and Sidon and Tyre, as well as Joppa. It shows the wisdom of Alex- 
ander the Great, that in founding his new city of Alexandria, he selected 
a site for it to the west of all the mouths of the Nile, so as to avoid this 
danger. 

According to one version of the classical myth, it was on this reef at 
Joppa that the beautiful Andromeda was chained and exposed to the 
sea-monster, whom angry Neptune had sent to ravage the coasts. 
Another version of the myth locates it in Ethiopia ; but Strabo and Pliny 
assure us it was here. The story is, that Cassiope, the queen of the 
country, had boasted herself fairer than Juno and the Nereides, the 
nymphs of the sea; and at the request of the latter Neptune punished 
the queen's insolence by sending a huge sea-monster to destroy her 
people. Nothing could appease him but the sacrifice of Andromeda, 
the queen's daughter. Accordingly she was fastened to the rocks amid 
the breakers ; but just as the monster was going to devour her, the hero 
Perseus returning through the air from the conquest of the Gorgous in 
Africa, saw her, and was captivated by her beauty. He bore in his 
hand the head of the Gorgon Medusa, which had the property of turn- 
ing into stone any one who looked upon it. Showing it to the monster, 
Perseus changed him into a rock, and released Andromeda and married 
her. Pliny tells us, that in his day they still showed the chains by 
which Andromeda was bound, and not only so, but that Marcus Scaurus, 
the younger, who was employed in Judea by Pompey, had the bones of 
the sea-monster transported from Joppa to Rome, and displayed them 
there to the public. They were forty feet in length ; the span of the 
ribs exceeded that of the Indian elephant, and the back-bone was a foot 
and a half in circumference. Some have supposed this to have been 
the fish that swallowed Jonah, and that his adventures are to be traced 
in the classical legend. But modern criticism sees in it only a symbolic 
description of " the first interchange of commerce between the Greeks, 
personified in their wandering hero Perseus, and the Phenicians who 



* II Chron. 2:16. 



f Ezra 3 : 7. 



JAFFA. 



Si 



then occupied Joppa ; the beauty of whose climate and location was 
shadowed forth in the fair Andromeda. Perseus in one version of the 
story, is said to have plunged his dagger into the shoulder of the mon- 
ster. This it is thought may mean, that he discovered or improved the 
harbor." 

When we went ashore at Jaffa, in small boats, we thought it would 
have been well if Perseus had plunged his dagger into the monster a few 
times more, and had still further improved the harbor. We were favored 
in having perfectly smooth water for our passage, and were rowed with- 
in the reef in safety. But sometimes when the water is rough, passen- 
gers have great difficulty and even danger in landing. Only a few 
months before we were there a small boat, caught by the swell, was 
dashed against the rocks and upset, and half a dozen passengers were 
drowned. It often occurs that when a steamer reaches Jaffa the water 
is too rough for the passengers to be safely landed in row-boats, and 
they are carried by to Beirut, if going north, or to Port Said, if 
going south, and they are obliged to come back and try it again. 
When we were in the Holy Land we heard of one party who were car- 
ried by Jaffa four times, and not till the fifth time did these persevering 
voyagers succeed in effecting a landing. There has always been the 
same trouble here from the treacherous rocks and breakers. When the 
Crusaders held Palestine, they built a mole to protect their shipping ; 
but under the rule of the Arabs and the Turks it fell into decay and has 
long since disappeared. 

Having gone ashore under the charge of Mr. Rolla Floyd — the tour- 
ist-agent of Jerusalem, with whom travellers make their contracts for 
dragomen and beasts and camp outfit to take them through the Holy 
Land — we were quickly passed through the custom-house without much 
examination of our baggage. We walked half a mile or more up the 
steep, winding, and filthy streets to the market-place, where we entered 
rickety old carriages and rode half a mile more to the Hotel Palestine 
in the German quarter, north of the city. We thought we had seen 
something of foul streets in Egypt, but no city or village that we saw 
there could equal Jaffa in the disgusting, unmitigated nastiness of its 
business thoroughfares. They seem to have been paved once, but the 
paving-stones are mostly covered with accumulated layers of decayed 
garbage and dirt, only sticking up here and there enough to make the 
road rough. Of course there are no drains, sewers, or cess-pools in the 
city, but the streets are used as the common receptacle for waste. The 

6 



82 A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

weather was fortunately bright and clear, and the streets dry when we 
were there; when it rains, woe to unhappy tourists who must wade 
through those unsavory depths ! 

Our hotel was a plain, two-story building ; the lower floor used for 
offices, dining room, kitchen, store rooms, etc., and the upper floor 
reached only by an outside wooden stair-case that led to a wooden bal- 
cony or piazza extending around the four sides of the house. Our bed- 
rooms all opened on this upper piazza, and had no windows in them, 
being lighted only by glass in the upper part of the door. On the west 
side we could look off upon the blue Mediterranean, and on the east 
side upon the orange groves adjacent to the city. The hotel was kept 
by Germans, of whom there is a small colony here. They occupy the 
quarters formerly belonging to the American colony, who went out from 
our country twenty-eight years ago with enthusiastic hopes to settle in 
Jaffa, but who came to grief. They were disappointed m their business 
expectations ; could not earn a living, and were reduced to poverty. 
They were regarded with suspicion by the natives, and suffered petty 
persecution. Sickness and death invaded their ranks and they became 
discouraged. The colony was broken up ; some returned to America, 
others scattered. Mr. Rolla Floyd, a Yankee of unfailing resources, be- 
came a guide to tourists, and extended his business, till now he is a 
chief contractor who sends parties through Palestine and Syria, provid- 
ing everything necessary for their transportation and living en route. 
He is a well-informed man on all matters pertaining to the country, has 
the Bible at his tongue's end, and is a most genial and entertaining 
guide. He is a bold rider and a fearless man, and has gained great 
ascendency over the natives ; even the fierce Bedouins stand in awe of 
him, and cultivate amicable relations. He is a prominent man now and 
well off ; but retains vivid impressions of the hardships and difficulties 
encountered when he was a member of the American colony at Jaffa. 

Our first excursion from the hotel was a walk through the' orange 
groves, of which there are some two thousand acres bordering the town ; 
and the fruit is of the finest quality, as good as our Florida oranges. A 
special feature of the Jaffa orange is that it will keep thirty or forty 
days, and if properly packed for two or even three months. Its culti- 
vation is difficult and laborious, for the orchards must be watered con- 
tinually, and the water has to be drawn by means of primitive water- 
wheels from deep wells. The fruit is transported in large quantities to 
Beirut, Constantinople, and Alexandria, and is the variety mainly used 



JAFFA. 



83 



in Egypt, as few oranges are grown there. It was charming to walk 
through these extensive groves, and see the golden orbs nestling among 
the white and fragrant blossoms and the glossy green leaves. There are 
also groves of lemons, almonds, pomegranates, peaches and apricots in 
the vicinity, and the citrons and watermelons are of high repute. 

Coming out from the miniature forest into a court inclosed by a high 
wall, we were asked to notice the solid wooden gate, which had a small 
door cut in it about two feet from the ground— an aperture just large 
enough for a man to squeeze through. This smaller opening is called 
"the eye of the needle," and we were told that we should see the same 
thing in the gates of Jerusalem, as we afterwards did. This was to us a 
most interesting and striking illustration of the meaning of the prover- 
bial saying, quoted by our Savior and applied, when He said, " It is 
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich 
man to enter into the kingdom of God." * Even an unloaded camel 
could scarcely get through this smaller door, cut in the gate of a city ; 
it is meant for belated individuals to get in after the gates have been 
shut for the night. 

On a slight elevation, less than a mile east of the city, was pointed 
out to us a Russian church, that occupies the traditional site of the 
house of Tabitha or Dorcas, whom Peter restored to life. The great 
Apostle was staying at Lydda, a town about ten miles distant on the 
road to Jerusalem, when this excellent woman died. She was noted for 
her good works and alms deeds, being wont to make garments for the 
poor • and the disciples mourning for her sent to Peter and begged him 
to come to them in their sorrow. He arrived, and was ushered into the 
upper chamber, where lay the body; while the poor widows, whom 
Dorcas had cared for in her life, stood by him weeping and showing the 
garments she had made. In answer to his prayers she was restored to 
life, and the miracle caused many to believe in the Lord.f The church 
has been built as a memorial of this event and of the pious, useful life 
of that good woman. But how much finer is the memorial supplied in 
the multitude of women's sewing-societies throughout Christendom, that 
have taken the name of Dorcas societies, in remembrance of this saintly 
worker at Joppa ! Her modest and unostentatious benevolence has set 
the example for tens of thousands of her Christian sisters ; and thus, 
she being dead, yet speaks to us. 

We did not go out to visit the church, which is not in itself note- 



* Mark 10 : 25. 



fActs 9 : 36-42. 



8 4 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



worthy, but walked down into the city and through the bazaars and the 
market-place, where we stared at the people engaged in their ordinary 
avocations. What we saw, was very similar to what we had seen in 
Egyptian cities. Here, e. g., was a water-carrier, bearing upon his back 
a huge skin-bottle filled with water, not now the skin of a donkey, but 
of a calf or goat with the hair outside, and tied at the legs and neck. 
The Arabs wore turbans or head-shawls and loose cotton robes girded 
at the waist, and were bare-footed, bare-legged and bare-armed, as in 
Egypt. Their women were veiled ; Christian women were not ; but 
they were all tattooed. Greeks wore the red fez on their heads, and 
their priests the tall, black skull-caps and long black robes, that had 
become familiar to us. Few Jews were seen ; most of them wore a long 
curl of hair trained down the side of the cheek and well oiled, which 
makes them look greasy. The bazaars were the same little closet-like 
shops that we had seen in Egypt, where vegetables and grains and meats 
and fish and fruits and cakes and sweets were sold to passers-by. Men 
carried on their trades in these shops or in the open air, tailoring, cob- 
bling, making hats, furniture, harness, or whatever else in full view of 
the public. Droves of mules and donkeys passed by, or a string of 
camels, almost lost to view amid the enormous loads piled on them. 
And porters with two or three great trunks strapped on their backs, or 
a load of barrels or of furniture, staggered along the steep and slippery 
streets ; exciting our wonder that they who are so slightly built and so 
insufficiently fed could carry so much heavier weight than men in our 
own country. It was an impressive illustration of Christ's saying about 
the scribes and Pharisees, " They bind heavy burdens and grievous to 
be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders." * Perhaps Christ, when 
He said this, pointed to some porter going by bending under his load. 

Amid these scenes we made our way down to the reputed location of 
the house of Simon the tanner, f by the sea-side near the south end of 
the town, where Peter tarried many days and where he had his "vision 
of tolerance," as it has been happily designated. Of course the house 
standing there now is not the one in which Peter lodged ; it is compara- 
tively modern ; but not unlikely it stands on the same site. The waves 
of the sea beat against the walls of the court yard ; and in accordance 
with the unchanging character of the East, tanning is still carried on in 
this part of the town. We climbed up to the flat roof of the house by 
a stone stair-case outside, as Peter probably did when he sought sl 



*Matt. 23 14. 



f Acts 9 : 43. 



JAFFA. 



»5 



xetired place to pray at noon. At the foot of the stone steps and close 
to the house is a well, from which a boy was lifting water into a stone 
watering trough, and a large fig-tree hangs over it. The roof is covered 
with concrete like the roofs of other houses in the neighborhood, and is 
inclosed by a parapet for safety. In such a spot doubtless Peter 
received that wonderful vision of the great sheet knit at the four corners 
and let down from heaven to earth, containing all manner of four-footed 
beasts and creeping things and birds ; by means of which he was taught 
not to regard any man common or unclean, and was prepared to receive 
the deputation from Cornelius the centurion, and to go with them to 
Cesarea to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.* A new conception of 
the world-wide mission of Christianity, and a mighty stride forward in 
its propagation, date from that vision of Peter upon the housetop. This 
alone is sufficient to make Joppa a place of sacred interest to every 
Christian. 

Close by us here was the Latin Convent of the Franciscans, to which 
however we did not succeed in gaining admission ; but we climbed up 
four or five flights of steps to the street above and entered the church 
of the Franciscans — a modern church built only a few years, not remark- 
able in any respect, yet having a handsome interior. There is also a 
Greek Monastery in the city, and an Armenian Convent. These insti- 
tutions afford free shelter to poor pilgrims of their faith, who come in 
large numbers, every year, on their way to Jerusalem to visit its holy 
places. An experience of our own, nine days later, when we were com- 
pelled by a violent storm to seek shelter in a monastery, profoundly 
impressed us with the usefulness of such institutions in Palestine in this 
respect. But while we were in Jaffa, we were much more interested in 
the Protestant mission-work done there than we were in the religious 
houses of Latins, Greeks, or Armenians. 

We visited Mrs. Arnot's school for girls, on the south side of the city, 
opposite the new and imposing edifice of the French Catholic Hospital. 
This Mrs. Arnot, who founded and has largely supported this school, is 
a Scotch lady. Entering the neat and substantial building, we were 
ushered into a large room or hall, and the teachers brought in nearly 
fifty young girls, ranging in age from eight to fourteen years — very bright 
and attractive looking girls, and all dressed in European style. They 
board and lodge here at a cost of only fifty dollars a year each. They 
sang several hymns for us, accompanied on a small organ by a sweet- 



* Acts 10 : 9-23. 



86 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



faced young Scotch teacher. One little girl sang a solo very nicely, and 
all sang the hymn, " What a Friend we have in Jesus," in the Arabic 
language. Then they sang in English, "Jack Horner" and " Dickery, 
Dickery, Dock," with clapping of hands. Six little girls came in wear- 
ing blue aprons and paper caps shaped like a baker's cap, and carrying 
tin pans and spoons, and sang a song about the way to make bread — 
going through the motions of stirring and kneading, etc. We were also 
shown some of the embroidery and sewing done by the pupils, which 
the ladies of our party pronounced very well done. 

Thence we went to a Protestant school for boys, conducted by the 
Church Missionary Society of England. There are about 150 scholars 
in the school ; perhaps 120 were in attendance the day we visited it, 
ranging in age from six to eighteen years. One of the older boys recited 
for us in English the Lord's Prayer and the Beatitudes, and another 
read the first Psalm ; and some small boys recited from John's gospel 
the story of Jesus' miracle of turning the water into wine. Most of 
these boys are children of Greek parents ; there were only a few Mo- 
hammedan boys among them. While in the girls' school we were told 
that there was but one Mohammedan girl. The Mohammedans gener- 
ally do not believe in female education. 

We also visited the Protestant Hospital, founded by Miss Mangan, 
and presided over by Miss Newton, who kindly showed us through the 
well-appointed building. We saw some cases in the various wards that 
greatly excited our pity, but I will spare the sensitive reader a rehearsal 
of the maladies of these unfortunate sufferers. Diseases of the eye are 
in Palestine as in Egypt peculiarly numerous and aggravated ; but the 
hospital surgeons and nurses find occasion to treat besides all the ills that 
flesh is heir to. The previous year they had treated over 16,000 cases, 
and had over 500 indoor patients. 

We were taken out on an upper piazza of the building, where we ob- 
tained a fine view of the city and the surrounding country. The hos- 
pital is in the Southern suburbs, and all the houses about it are new, this 
whole section having been built up within the last twenty years, during 
which Jaffa has grown from 8,000 to 14,000 population. To the north 
of us lay the city upon its lofty hill ; on the west the rippling Mediter- 
ranean, and east were the mountains of Judah in the distance, with the 
plain of Sharon intervening — a plain 28 miles across, and extending 60 
or 70 miles north to Mount Carmel. Northeast and southeast of us 
were strips of desert, and to the south Philistia and its cities. So 



JAFFA. 



87 



pretty is the situation that the town seems well named Jaffa, which 
means beauty. But so filthy are its streets and its people, that no 
traveller thinks it a beautiful town. And yet the guide books tell us 
that the principal manufacture of Jaffa is soap. Unfortunately they 
seem to export it all ; evidently it is not made for home consumption. 

The city has had a varied history. In ancient times it belonged to 
the Phenicians, and though assigned by Joshua to the tribe of Dan,* 
the latter could not wrest it from the Phenicians, who appear to have 
held it in Solomon's day, and later in the time of Jonah the prophet,who 
sought to flee from his duty by taking passage at Joppa in a Phenician 
ship, bound for Tarshish or Spain. f It was not till the times of the 
Maccabees that Joppa, conquered by them, became a Jewisn city. Then 
the Romans took it ; next the Saracens, and then the Crusaders, and 
then the Saracens again, and finally the Turks, to whom it still belongs. 
Let us hope that it will yet be taken for Christ through the humble in- 
strumentality of these mission schools that have been described, and 
that its name of Jaffa, i. e. beauty, may yet appropriately set forth the 
moral and spiritual beauty to be attained, when evangelical Christianity 
shall inspire the hearts of its people ! 

* Josh. 19:46. f Jonah 1:3. 



1 



CHAPTER XI. 



From Jaffa to Jerusalem. 

HEN our party of pilgrims started from Jaffa for Jerusalem, we 
took with us only our lighter baggage, while the heavy trunks 
were sent by steamer to Beirut, to await our arrival there after 
we should have completed the tour of the Holy Land. For the most 
of our tour was to be made on horse-back and our effects were to be 
transported on mule-back, and trunks would be a nuisance under such 
circumstances. We might indeed have travelled as far as Jerusalem by 
carriages, if we had desired to do so, since one of the few carriage-roads 
that are found in Palestine runs from Jaffa to Jerusalem. But we 
determined to go neither by carriage, nor on horse-back, nor mule-back, 
nor as St. Paul and his companions probably went upon his last jour- 
ney from that other sea-port of Cesarea, on foot ; but in a way that St. 
Paul and his companions never dreamed of — by railroad. For only the 
preceding autumn the railroad that had been for several years in con- 
struction, between the two points mentioned, had been completed ; 
and we thought it would be a pleasant and novel sensation to ride upon 
it in this land, till now unreached by modern enterprise. 

The opening of this railway to travel, in the fall of 1892, was an occa- 
sion of great excitement in Jerusalem. A large part of the population 
crowded about the track and the station, which was covered with Turk- 
ish and French flags ; the latter in honor of the French company who 
built and own the line. Turkish soldiers, both cavalry and infantry, 
were on guard, and military bands were playing. Among the function- 
aries present were the special delegate of the Sultan of Turkey, the gov- 
ernors of Jerusalem and Jaffa, and an imaum or Mohammedan priest 
wearing a green turban, who officiated at a peculiar ceremony. " Three 
rams, two of them white and one black, with their horns gilded, were 
led out upon the track to be sacrificed. The imaum, surrounded by 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 



89 



the officials, offered a prayer in a high voice, and bent over the animals 
which were held upon the track ; the bands began to play and the mul- 
titude to shout, and the throats of the sheep were cut. When their 
blood had flowed over the rails, their bodies were removed. The offi- 
cials entered the train, the people stepped aside, the signal was given, 
and the train decorated with flags and palm-branches moved out of the 
station amid the firing of cannon, and passed over the rails wet with the 
blood of the sacrificed animals." Thus the Holy City was brought 
into steam communication with the cities of Europe, and the first step 
was taken towards its modernization. 

When we repaired to the station at nine o'clock in the morning, we 
found that the cars used are of the small and stuffy European pattern ; 
but the engines were made at the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Phila- 
delphia. Though not large, they are quite strong enough to pull the 
light trains to which they are attached up the long grades, necessitated 
by the ascent of 2,500 feet to Jerusalem. Our special car was coupled 
to a freight train, that made the run of forty miles in about four hours ; 
not a break-neck rate of speed certainly, but corresponding very well to 
the slowness with which everything moves there. We rode comfort- 
ably, however, in our little car, as the weather had suddenly changed, 
and while the day before had been as hot in the sun as we had found 
it in Egypt, the morning was cloudy and cool, and a brisk wind from 
the Mediterranean foretokened a storm. 

We proceeded across the fertile plain of Sharon, which with the plain 
of Jericho and the plain of Esdraelon in the north, and the plain skirt- 
ing the waters of Merom, includes nearly all the level land that we saw 
in Palestine, the remainder being hills, mountains, and narrow, deep 
valleys. The plain extends from Mount Carmel on the north to the 
wells of Beersheba in the south, and from the sand hills along the Med- 
terranean Sea to the mountains of Judea and Samaria on the east. 
Yet it is by no means flat. It is diversified by considerable swells, be- 
tween which lie stretches of meadow and field and a sprinkling of olive 
groves, while winding streams find their way through to the sea. It 
must have been one of the richest portions of Canaan, when the Israel- 
ites entered the country, but they were not able to gain possession of 
it, because, as we learn from the first chapter of the book of Judges, 
the inhabitants had chariots of iron. The Israelites were foot soldiers, 
without horses or chariots till Solomon's time, and while they easily 
overcame the Canaanites of the hills, and exterminated or put them 



9° 



A n omine in bible lands. 



under tribute, and occupied their lands, they could not drive out the in- 
habitants of the valley or plain, where the ground was such as to ad- 
mit the use of armed chariots. It was so not only in the case of the 
plain of Sharon, but also in the case of the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon 
that fell in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh. The Canaanites 
held their ground here for a long time, till finally subdued by David 
and Solomon. Such was the impression of this history, that long after 
in the time of King Ahab, the Syrians explained a defeat of theirs by 
the Israelites by saying : " Their gods are gods of the hills ; there- 
fore they were stronger than we ; but let us fight against them in the 
plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they." * For this impious 
boast, however, the Lord delivered the Syrians again into the hands of 
the Israelites with great slaughter. 

One is captivated with the beauty of the plain of Sharon, which is re- 
ferred to by Isaiah in the familiar passage where he predicts that the 
desert shall blossom as the rose — " the glory of Lebanon," says he, 
" shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, f On 
either side we saw vast wheat-fields yet in the tender blade, without any 
division-fences, though in some places hedges of cactus divided the 
fields. Here and there men were ploughing, holding in one hand the 
handle of the rude plough and in the other a long wooden goad, whose 
iron point served to stimulate and direct the sorry-looking oxen. The 
plough was merely an upright piece of wood fastened at the bottom to 
another horizontal piece that held the flat-headed coulter, and it only 
scratched the surface of the ground, making a furrow two or three 
inches deep. One man I noticed had a camel hitched to his plough 
instead of oxen. They were getting the soil ready for planting various 
crops, among which beans and lentils are chief. Further on we saw 
numerous groves of olive trees, and some almonds and pomegranates, 
whose foliage is grateful to the eye surveying the generally treeless land- 
scape. 

But the principal beauty of the plain was the profusion of wild 
flowers growing everywhere. Most conspicuous among them was a 
scarlet anemone, that looks very like a red poppy, and that our guide 
declared to be the flower called in Scripture the rose of Sharon. This, 
however, is a doubtful identification. Of course we know that 
the flower now called the rose was not introduced into Palestine 
from Persia, its home, until late in Jewish history, and could not 



* I Kings 20 : 23. 



f Isa. 35 : 2. 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 



9i 



therefore have been the flower intended in the name " rose of Sharon." 
Some think this was the squill ; some, the mallow j some, the crocus ; 
others claim it was the narcissus, and this last seems for several reasons 
most probable — especially as the Hebrew word indicates a bulbous 
plant. Then we saw pink anemones, and white and blue and yellow 
flowers of the genus known as ranunculus. All these were but an ear- 
nest of what we were to see everywhere on our travels through the Holy 
Land and Syria in a journey of more than 400 miles ; for the whole 
country is so carpeted with wild flowers in the spring of the year that 
its otherwise rugged and desolate aspect is measurably relieved by the 
mass of bloom. One is reminded of the words in the Song of Solomon : 
" Lo ! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers appear 
on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of 
the turtle (i. e., the turtle dove) is heard in our land ; the fig tree put- 
teth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good 
smell." * Not, however, that we heard any song birds in Palestine ; 
there is not enough woodland for them, and the doves we found only 
about the villages, where they are raised for food. The silence of the 
land is noticeable and oppressive. 

Passing the first little village on our way we observed, what we so- 
often observed afterward, the thatched roofs of the mud-walled houses, 
covered with a growth of grain or grass that had sprung up under the 
winter rains, but was doomed to die with the increasing heat. And I 
recalled the words of the Psalmist concerning the wicked, " Let them 
be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth 
up; wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth 
sheaves his bosom." f And the similar language of Isaiah, " They were 
as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the 
housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up." X Here I gained 
an explanation of those passages of Scripture, which puzzle the Occiden- 
tal reader, because he does not see how grass could grow on the tops 
of houses. Not on our shingled or slated or tiled roofs certainly. But 
the roofs of these mud-hovels on the plain of Sharon were composed 
merely of layers of mud over a frame-work of brush, thorns, or reeds, 
supported by a crooked beam or two ; and the seeds that happened to 
be in this soil had sprouted by reason of the rains, and the warm sua 
had nourished the vegetation. Of course such roofs are apt to leak 
badly in rainy weather, and must be constantly repaired, or they wilL 



Song Sol. 2 : 11-13. 



f Ps. 129 : 6, 7. 



X Isa. 37 : 27. 



9 2 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



^become full of cracks and holes, and the unprotected side-walls will get 
soaked with rain and will bulge out and fall. Hence we are prepared 
to understand the passage in the book of Ecclesiastes (Revised Ver- 
sion), " By slothfulness the roof sinketh in, and through idleness of the 
hands the house leaketh." * And the passage in Proverbs, "A con- 
tinual dropping in a very rainy day, and a contentious woman are 
alike." f Probably the houses of the Jewish people in Bible times were 
as meanly built of sun-dried bricks, which they had learned to make in 
Egypt, as are the houses of the Arabs in Palestine to-day. 

Our railroad train stopped at a station for Lydda, that lies west over 
a hill. It was in this town that the Apostle Peter restored to health 
^Eneas, "which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the 
palsy ; " % and from this town Peter was summoned to Joppa, on the 
occasion of Dorcas' death. Lydda is still further noted as the reputed 
place of the birth and burial of the patron saint of England, St. George. 
He is said to have been martyred in the province of Bithynia, whence 
Iris remains were carried to his native town. There is no reason to 
doubt that he was a real historic person and a faithful servant of Christ, 
though we reject the legends connected with his name. The Crusaders 
built in Lydda, in his honor, a fine church, 150 feet long and 79 feet 
oroad, with a crypt containing what is called St. George's Tomb. It 
has long been in ruins ; a portion of it has been rebuilt for a Greek 
church, and the remainder is the court of a mosque. 

Beyond this point we passed a modern village believed to be on the 
site of ancient Hazarshual, which means fox-village, and which is by 
tradition the place where Samson caught the three hundred foxes, whom 
lie tied tail to tail in couples with a fire-brand between them, and set 
loose in the standing corn of the Philistines with the effect of burning 
it up. § Most scholars think these animals were jackals, a wild species 
of dog very like foxes, but of gregarious habits, which would make it 
easier for Samson to catch three hundred of them. Jackals as well as 
foxes are common now in Palestine; we heard them howl around our 
tents one night in our camping tour. 

A little further on we came to the large town of Ramleh, where we 
went on a switch to wait for the train coming from Jerusalem, — as the 
railroad has but a single track. The compactly built town is over half 
a mile from the station on a low hill, but we could plainly see its most 
interesting feature, a large stone tower 26 feet square and 120 feet 

* Eccl. 10:18. fProv. 27:15. 1 Acts 9: 33. g Judges 15:4, 5. 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 



93 



high, which is supposed by some to have been originally part of a 
Christian church, but it is claimed by the Moslems to have been built 
by the Arab workmen. There is a staircase within the tower, and its 
top is a favorite point from which tourists obtain a fine view of the 
whole plain of Sharon. There is also in Ramleh an old church nearly 
as large as St. George's church in Lydda, that was built by the Cru- 
saders, but has long since been turned into a Mohammedan mosque. 
Mr. Rolla Floyd identifies Ramleh with the ancient Arimathaea, the 
home of Joseph, who obtained from Pilate the body of Jesus, and laid 
it in his own new tomb hewn out in the rock.* But it is fair to say that 
the late Dr. Edward Robinson thought the village of Rantieh, ten miles 
north, to be the site of Arimathaea. While so good an authority as Dr. 
Cunningham Geikie claims, and in this he is sustained by Smith's Dic- 
tionary of the Bible, that Arimathaea is to be identified with Raman, 
the birth place and home of Samuel the Prophet, which is still pointed 
out some miles northeast. When we were in Ramallah, a place twelve 
miles northwest of Jerusalem, we were assured by parties there that 
their town was, no doubt, the Arimathaea, whence Joseph came. A 
good example this of the way in which most identifications of sites in 
Palestine are disputed. A cautious man soon learns to doubt any 
identification proposed to him. Happy is he if he does not end by be- 
lieving that probably none is correct. 

After leaving Ramleh we were pointed out on the left the site of 
Gezer, the Canaanitish town that Pharaoh took and gave to his daugh- 
ter, Solomon's wife, as part of her dowry, f Further on we saw a mud 
village that we were told occupies the site of Ekron, the Philistine 
city to which the captured ark of God was taken after it had produced 
plagues both in Ashdod and Gath, and whence it was sent back to the 
Israelites.^ Soon we reached the locality of the village of Latron, the 
reputed home of the penitent robber, who was crucified with Christ, § 
and we learned that behind the high range of hills on the left was the 
valley of Ajalon, where Joshua commanded the moon to stand still. || 
By this time we had entered a rougher country with stony sections 
used for the pasturage of flocks, and we soon struck the foot hills of the 
mountains of Judah, around which our iron track ran like a glist- 
ening serpent. Here we saw for the first time what we were to see so 
often, an encampment of Bedouins, consisting of a number of long,. 



*John 19:38-42. 
gLuke 23:40-43. 



f 1 Kings 9:16. 
|| Josh. 10:12, 13. 



% 1 Sam. 5:10 and Ch. 6. 



94 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



low tents, made of black goats' hair, which sheds the heaviest rain. 
That sight illumined for me the words of the fair Shulamite in the Song 
of Solomon, — " I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, 
as the tents of Kedar " * — the name of a tribe of Arabs settled on the 
borders of Palestine. No doubt in the days when this Song was com- 
posed, just as now, these wandering children of the desert lived in black 
tents, which they moved from one place to another when the pasturage 
became exhausted, or the water failed in a dry time. In such tents too, 
we may suppose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to have lived when they 
sojourned in this land of promise, where as yet they owned no ground 
but a burial place. 

Passing on the right hand the probable site of Bethshemesh, the town 
to which the two milch-kine drew the cart containing the ark of God 
when the Philistines returned it, f we saw on the left hand a building on 
a high hill, where it is said stood the town of Zorah, Samson's birth- 
place. % A breezy and healthy situation, I thought • where the sturdy 
lad might well draw in the love of liberty with his native air, and de- 
velop into the deliverer of his people from the Philistines, the Hercules 
of the Hebrews. Now we began to climb the lofty hills, curving 
around their sides and following the dry water-course called the Wady 
Salman. It seems they call the Wady by the names of neighboring 
Sheikhs, so that the same channel bears different names at different 
points. All the way these rocky hills were overspread with lovely red 
and pink flowers. Many flocks of black sheep were pasturing here, but 
nearly all the hills bore evidence of having been once terraced to the 
top for vines and olive trees. Now they are utterly waste and bare and 
uncultivated. The trees and vines have disappeared, and the rains 
have washed most of the soil away, and only the stone terraces and a 
thin veneering of earth remain. An immense amount of work must 
have been expended in making these terraces, and vast crops of fruit 
must have been raised here ; and in the time of Christ, when these hills 
were clothed with luxuriant foliage, they must have looked as charming 
as now they look desolate. On some of the hills we saw remains of 
ancient wine-presses where they used to crush the grapes, and ruined 
vaults where the wine was stored — relics of a prosperity vanished 
ages ago. 

We passed a few small villages perched among the mountains, and 
stopped at one of them called Bittir — the town known as Bether in the 



* Song Sol. 1:5. 



1 1 Sam. 6 : 30-12. 



% Judg. 13 : 2, 24. 



FROM JAFFA TO JERUSALEM. 



95 



days of the Romans, and famous in the post-Biblical history of the 
country. This was the birthplace of Bar Cocheba, who headed the 
insurrection of the Jews against the Romans, in the reign of the Em- 
peror Hadrian, and here he was crowned king by the Jews, and here in 
this mountain-fortress they made their last stand against the Romans. 
For over fifty years after the terrible destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, 
which involved, according to Josephus, the slaughter of eleven hundred 
thousand Jews, there had been frequent plots and insurrections on the 
part of the subjugated people, till even Hadrian, who had showed them 
some favor at the beginning of his reign, became bitter against them. 
These disturbances culminated in a general uprising about 132 A. D., 
when Bar Cocheba announced himself to be the Star that should come 
out of Jacob, according to the prophecy of Balaam, and should " smite 
the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth."* He was 
accepted by the populace as the long-looked for Messiah and Deliverer, 
and they flocked to his standard. A fierce fanatic he must have been, 
for he required every one of his followers to have a finger cut off to 
prove his courage and resolution. It is said that 200,000 men sub- 
mitted to this test. They captured Jerusalem, which had been partly 
rebuilt, and many other places ; and it took the Romans three years to 
subdue the revolt. But at length Bether the last stronghold of the 
desperate Jews was overwhelmed, and they were all put to the sword. 
More than half a million perished ; while on the side of the Romans 
the victory was dearly bought by enormous losses. 

Beyond Bether we ran down into a valley southwest of Jerusalem, 
and about one o'clock P. M., our train came to a halt at the station 
nearly a mile outside the walls of the city, which is situated upon a hill, 
or rather four hills inclosed by deep valleys. We were transferred to 
carriages, and drove rapidly over the dusty road towards the renowned 
city which had been so long the goal of our aspirations and our jour- 
neyings by sea and land. As its lofty, mediaeval walls came into view, 
our hearts beat fast with expectation. At last we were to see the city 
of David and Solomon and the long line of Judean kings ; the city whose 
streets hfed been trodden by the feet of our Savior and His Apostles ■ 
the city of a thousand sacred memories, regarded as the Holy City 
alike by Jews and Christians and Mohammedans. As we followed the 
road under its walls and passed the gate known as the Jaffa gate, we 
were eager to enter it at once and explore its monuments of interest. 



* Num. 24 : 17. 



9 6 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



But this we were not to do immediately. First we were to go to our 
hotel, the Hotel Jerusalem, which is situated in the new part of the city 
that has grown up outside the walls on the west and northwest side. So 
we turned to our left at the Jaffa gate, and drove a mile further past the 
imposing religious houses of the Russians and into the German quarter, 
where we stopped at a group of low, stone buildings that constituted the 
Hotel Jerusalem, and were to be our headquarters during our stay in 
the city. Here we refreshed ourselves and rested after our journey — 
our pilgrimage complete. 



CHAPTER XII. 



A General View of Jerusalem. 




HE tourist who visits modern Jerusalem experiences singularly 
conflicting emotions. He admires its commanding situation, 



upon a mountain 2,500 feet above the level of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, and surrounded by other mountains still higher, and he is 
rilled with enthusiasm over the sacred associations that cluster about 
this venerable city. But he is sadly impressed with the decay and 
dilapidation that he sees on every side, — the wretched interior of the 
city, the dingy buildings, the narrow and dirty streets, the poverty and 
degradation and grovelling fanaticism of its inhabitants. On the ocean 
steamer outward bound, I was talking to a gentleman who had travelled 
much abroad, and had been through the Holy Land and Syria. " You 
will be greatly disenchanted," said he, " when you see Jerusalem." And 
I was. It is not the city of one's dreams and expectations, but a for- 
lorn caricature of them ; a city whose pride and beauty have vanished, 
and whose holy places are desecrated by base superstition and empty 
formalism. One thinks like the Crusaders of old, to come nearer to 
Christ in these localities that He once trod ; but we find that He is not 
there — that He is rather to be apprehended in lands like our own,where 
His spiritual presence is manifested and felt. It seems to me thus that 
New York is more of a hoiy city than Jerusalem, and that piety has 
nothing to gain by pilgrimage. 

And yet it is exceedingly interesting to a Christian to visit and study 
these ruins of a memorable past. It deepens his impression of the 
reality of the scenes and events that Scripture has familiarized him with. 
He finds fresh confirmations of the sacred narrative on every side. He 
learns the relative positions of places, the accuracy of Scriptural ref- 
erences to them and to the features of the country and to the customs 
of the people, and the past seems to live again before him. The land 

7 



9 8 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



of Palestine has been called "a fifth gospel." and appropriately so, since 
a study of it illumines wonderfully the four gospels that we have. And 
not only them, but it illumines the whole Bible for us, enabling us to 
understand a thousand things that would otherwise be obscure to the 
Occidental mind. While chief of all " the city of the Great King," * 
as the Psalmist calls it, richly repays investigation of its remaining 
monuments, though so little has been spared by the vandalism of its 
successive destroyers. 

Our first excursion from our hotel was to an elevated point within the 
walls, from which we might obtain a complete view of the city and its 
surroundings. So we were driven in shabby and rattling carriages of an 
antique pattern, that looked as though they had been in use before we 
were born, to the Damascus Gate on the north side ; where we alighted, 
as it is not possible for carriages to pass through the very narrow and 
steeply terraced streets. One must either walk or ride a donkey, and 
on account of the crowd of pedestrians the latter is the slower method 
of the two. Outside this Damascus Gate it is believed that Stephen, 
the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death, f and was buried in the 
garden of Gamaliel, near by. Entering the gate we saw in the adjoin- 
ing wall the upper part of the arch of the ancient gate, which now lies 
buried 28 feet deep. This prepared us for the statement, that the Jeru- 
salem of our Savior's time is overlaid by twenty to fifty feet of rubbish ; 
that the streets of to-day are by no means the streets He walked, and 
may not follow the same lines \ and that there is not a house there now 
that He looked upon. Jeremiah's prophecy, that " the city shall be 
builded upon her own heap," % has been literally fulfilled many times. 
After each overthrow of the city, when it has been rebuilt, there has 
been no effort to clear away the ruins to the former grade, but the 
debris has been levelled down and the new city built on top of the 
old one. 

This of course makes it very difficult to identify positively any of the 
ancient sites, and opens the door to endless controversies. It is com- 
monly said, that there have been at least eight different Jerusalems j 
and some say eleven. There was first the Jerusalem of the Jebusites ; 
secondly, the Jerusalem of David and Solomon and the Judean kings ; 
thirdly, the Jerusalem of Ezra and Nehemiah and the Maccabees ; 
fourthly, the city of Herod, destroyed by the Romans under Titus, A. 
D. 70; fifthly, the city built by the Emperor Hadrian and called Elia 



*Ps. 48:2. 



f Acts 7 : 59. 



j Jer. 30: iS. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF JERUSALEM. 



( J9 



Capitolina, and continuing under the Christian emperors; sixthly, the 
Jerusalem of the Saracens; seventhly, the Jerusalem of the Crusaders; 
and eighthly, the modern city of the Moslems. Twenty-seven times 
Jerusalem has been besieged, and often taken and "laid on heaps,"* 
till there has scarcely " one stone been left upon another that was not 
thrown down."| 

The present walls of Jerusalem are in a good state of preservation ; 
they were built by the Sultan Solyman in the 16th century — the ma- 
terials used being the remains of the older walls, all hewn stones bed- 
ded in mortar. These walls are about 35 feet high, and include 34 
towers which gave them additional strength in the warfare of the period 
when they were constructed ; but of course they would be worthless to 
resist our modern rifled cannon. They are pierced by rive gates now in 
use ; the Jaffa Gate on the west leading to Bethlehem and Hebron as 
well as Jaffa; the Damascus Gate, or Gate of the Columns on the 
north ; St. Stephen's Gate, or the Gate of the Tribes on the east, lead- 
ing to the Mount of Olives and Bethany ; the Dung Gate leading to the 
Pool of Siloam, and the Zion Gate on the south. The circuit of the 
walls is only about two miles and a half ; in Christ's time a little more 
than four miles, inclosing the whole plateau that rises from the deep, 
narrow valleys around, called respectively the Valley of Jehoshaphat, 
the Valley of Hinnom, and the Valley of Gihon. It could always be 
said as the Psalmist said, " Jerusalem is builded as a city that is com- 
pact together." X It was compact because it had no room to spread 
out, and in the days of its prosperity must have been very densely pop- 
ulated. 

Jerusalem is built on four hills. As we entered from the north at the 
Damascus Gate, on our right hand was the hill called Akra, and directly 
south of it Mount Zion. On our left hand was the hill Bezetha, and 
south of it Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built, and where 
now stands the Mosque of Omar. The depression between the hills on 
the right and those on the left is called the Tyropceon, formerly called 
the Cheesemongers' Valley, and once very deep, but now nearly filled 
up with the rubbish of centuries. The hill Bezetha belongs to the Mo- 
hammedan quarter, which extends to and includes the area about the 
Mosque of Omar. The space between the Damascus Gate and the 
Jaffa Gate, i. e. the hill Akra, is assigned to the Greeks and the Roman 
Catholics. And the remainder, or Mount Zion, is divided between the 



Ps. 79: I. 



f Mark 13 : 2. 



}Ps. 122:3. 



IOO 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



Armenians and Jews, the former occupying the more elevated part, and 
the latter bordering in part upon Mount Moriah, where once stood their 
beloved temple. Perhaps these statements, which if not mathematically 
exact are approximately correct, of the various divisions of the city, will 
help the reader to understand better the localities of the buildings that 
we visited. 

After entering the Damascus Gate we turned to the left and went up 
the hill Bezetha to a house occupied by a company of people repre- 
senting different nationalities, but known in Jerusalem as " the Ameri- 
cans," because the original company came from Chicago about a dozen 
years ago. They founded a community for the cultivation of personaL 
holiness. Some of them have died, and others of various nationalities 
have joined them, till they number in all twenty-five people, — men, 
women and children, — but they are still known as " the Americans." 
We were very politely received by several of them in a large upper 
room that appeared like a family sitting room at home, and we had 
conversation with them about their views and purposes. They do not 
engage m missionary work, further than to talk with any who may 
choose to come and see them, but they claim to be waiting on the Lord, 
and waiting for the fulfillment of the promises. They especially insist 
upon the importance of the fulfillment of Christ's prayer for His dis- 
ciples, k ' that they may be one," * and they say that when Christians are 
one and harmonious, it will be easy to convert mankind. So they are 
endeavoring to present an object lesson in Christian unity, and are just 
waiting. 

They kindly took us up on the roof of the house, and from this ele- 
vation, above the summit of the hill, we obtained an excellent view of 
the whole city and its environs. The house stands very near to the 
north wall of the city and overtops it. Looking northward we saw not 
far from the Damascus Gate, perhaps a quarter of a mile, a dome- 
shaped hill, entirely free from buildings or trees, on whose nearer side 
appeared a natural cave in the rock, which is called Jeremiah's Grotto. 
Here, acccording to tradition, the weeping prophet was imprisoned, and 
here he wrote his Lamentations. This is the hill which is believed by 
many modern scholars to be the true site of Calvary, rather than the 
traditional site upon which the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has so 
long stood. But to this subject, we shall recur later. This northern or 
northwestern side of the city is the only side on which it is not bounded 

•John 17:21, 22. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF JERUSALEM. 



101 



"by a deep valley ; it has always furnished therefore the most feasible 
approach for besiegers. On the elevated ground outside once spread 
the hosts of Nebuchadnezzar ; and there Titus marshalled his Roman 
legions ; and there was the battle-ground of the Crusaders and the Sara- 
cens. Far in the northwest horizon looms up the loftiest mountain 
within sight, called by the Arabs Neby Samwil, on which the ancient Miz- 
peh was situated, to which town Samuel called the people together to 
make Saul king,* and which was one of the towns of Samuel's circuit 
as judge.! Mizpeh means watch-tower, and this eminence might well 
have been selected as a post of observation, from which to survey the 
country and give warning of the approach of an invading foe. 

Looking east we saw the Mount of Olives and the hill Scopus, which 
is the northern peak of the mountain. They are about 300 feet higher 
than the eastern part of the city, and separated from it by the Valley 
of Jehoshaphat or the Valley of the Kedron, a little brook at the time 
when we were there, but a torrent in the winter ^and a perfectly dry 
channel in the summer. On the lower slope of Olivet we could see the 
dark cypresses of the Garden of Gethsemane, and above them the glit- 
tering towers of a handsome Russian church, and groups of ancient 
religious houses on the summit. To the southeast a more extensive 
prospect opened away down to the Dead Sea, beyond which rose the 
mountains of Moab. South of the city we saw the Hill of Evil Counsel 
and to the west of this the plains of Rephaim and the road leading to 
Bethlehem, whose rugged outlying hills closed the view in that direc- 
tion. While on the west of the city's walls was the new part of Jerusa- 
lem, extending from the Jaffa Gate northwest and including all the 
more recent and finest buildings. 

It is an interesting fact that this present extension of the city follows 
the direction and occupies the localities predicted by Jeremiah, " Be- 
hold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the 
Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. And 
the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, 
and shall compass about to Goath." J The New Hotel, so called, has 
been built just inside the Jaffa Gate, on the site of the Tower of Hana- 
neel, a part of its foundations resting on the old wall of that Tower. 
And the improvements extend over the hills Gareb and Goath, as Jere- 
miah predicted ; business-blocks, churches, hospices, consulates, hotels, 
private residences ; reaching as Zechariah predicted, " from the tower 



* I Sam. 10 : 17-25 



f I Sam. 7 : 16. 



t Jer. 31 : 38, 39- 



102 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses," * which last still exist and 
have been identified. A remarkable fulfillment of prophecy this, in our 
own day. 

Within the city proper, all the prominent points of interest were 
pointed out to us from the roof of the Americans' house. In the south- 
east quarter the graceful Mosque of Omar, or as the Moslems call it the 
Kubbet-es-Sukhrah, i. e., the Dome of the Rock, standing within its 
inclosure of thirty-five acres which is called the Haram-esh-Sherif, i. e. y 
the Noble Sanctuary, where once the Temple of Solomon stood. Close 
by it the Mosque El Aksa, once a Christian church built by Justinian. 
North of this inclosure and nearer to us the church of St. Anne, the 
mother of the Virgin Mary. On our right upon the hill Akra, the im- 
posing church of the Holy Sepulchre with its immense copper dome, 
and near it the ruins of the Hospital of the Knights of St. John. Upon 
Mount Zion, further south, the massive Tower of David, and beyond it 
the English Church and the Armenian Convent. East of these the 
Jewish quarter and its two large synagogues, one with a green and one 
with a white dome. And higher up on the top of Zion, the black dome 
that marks the Tomb of David. It was a wonderful panorama spread 
out before us, that whetted our appetites for the feast of exploration ; 
and we descended to the ground and took leave of our eccentric but 
kind hosts, eager to begin the work of sight-seeing. 



* Zech. 14 : 10. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Mosque of Omar and Bethesda. 

f\ERHAPS most pilgrims to Jerusalem visit first of all the Church 
& of the Holy Sepulchre, believing that here they are upon the 
sacred ground of the Crucifixion. But we with less of faith in 
that tradition than they made our first object of approach the so-called 
Mosque of Omar, that occupies the site of the ancient Temple. Though 
it is not strictly speaking a mosque, but belongs rather to the class of 
shrines erected over some sacred spot or tomb. We reached it from 
the Jaffa Gate by following thence " the street of David," which runs 
directly from the gate across the city to the court of the mosque. This 
is one of the most interesting spots in the world ; regarded with as much 
reverence by Mohammedans as by Jews, and with no slight reverence 
by Christians also. It is to Jerusalem what the Acropolis is to Athens 
— the centre of its pristine pride and glory. The Mohammedans have 
guarded it jealously, for hundreds of years forbidding any Christian or 
Jew to enter it on pain of death. It is only since the Crimean war, 
less than forty years ago, that these restrictions have been removed ; but 
now the tourist can enter and examine at his leisure everything about 
the court and within the building, and its custodians, with Oriental 
graciousness, will show him through, and accept the liberal backsheesh 
that he is expected to pay. They esteem this the most sacred edifice 
of Islam next to the Mosque of Mecca, which, of course, stands first ; 
even as they esteem Jerusalem the second most sacred city of the world. 

The Haram, or spacious court within which the mosque stands, is 
an oblong level area paved with marble, and m places ornamented with 
trees, and inclosed by walls that are built up from the declivities of the 
hill on three sides, — the east, the south, and the west. On the north, 
the natural level of the ground is higher than this area, and the native 
rock has been cut into to form a wall. On that side stood the Tower 



io 4 A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

of Antonia in the days of Christ and of Paul, where the Roman garrison 
was stationed, and whence they could look down into the temple-area 
and keep a watch upon the turbulent Jews. This was "the castle" 
into which Paul was carried by the chief captain, who rescued him from 
the mob of Jews that were about to kill him ; and from the stairs of this 
castle Paul addressed the mob.* Some of the stones of this tower, as 
they are believed to be, we saw lying upon the rock. The walls upon 
the other three sides of the paved area, while not very high upon the 
inside, rise from a great depth below. At the southeast corner the wall 
is 1 80 feet high outside, above the ancient level of the ground, and 
though the rubbish has accumulated from 60 to 90 feet deep the effect 
is still imposing. These walls were originally raised to enlarge the sur- 
face of the hill-top for the temple inclosure, by rilling up the space within 
them ; and while their upper courses are modern, and the courses below 
these Saracenic, and those further down Herodian, on the lower foun- 
dation-stones recent explorers have found masons' marks in Phenician 
letters, which prove their Solomonic origin. These walls are 1,530 feet 
long on the east side, 922 feet on the south, 1,601 on the west, and 
1,024 on the north. ■ 

We entered the sacred precincts on the west side at the foot of David 
street, by a few ascending steps, and walked from one point to another, 
while our guide tried to reconstruct for us the scene as it appeared of 
old. On the northwest stood, it is supposed, the quadrangular building 
where the Jewish priests kept their stores, and where they resorted to 
warm themselves at the fire in cold weather. On the eastern side was 
the covert where they slept. On the southeast corner probably stood 
the House of the Forest of Lebanon, where Solomon kept the rank and 
file of his wives ; and on the southwest stood the palace where he lived 
with Pharaoh's daughter. Near the southwest corner came in the bridge, 
or arched way above the Valley of the Tyropoeon, that Solomon built 
from Mount Zion to the temple-inclosure ; called in the book of Chroni- 
cles "his ascent by which he went up into the House of the Lord," f 
that excited the admiration of the Queen of Sheba. On the west side 
of the Mosque of Omar our guide was disposed to locate the Holy 
Place, and the Holy of Holies in the rear of the great altar of burnt- 
offering. Yet an impenetrable cloud of uncertainty, I need scarcely 
say, rests upon these particular identifications. 

Around the sides of the temple-area, within its walls, ran in Christ's 



* Acts 21 : 30-40. 



f II Chron. 9: 4. 



THE MOSQUE OE OMAR AND BE THE SD A. 105 



day those magnificent cloisters, having roofs of carved cedar supported 
by columns of white marble, called the Court of the Gentiles, where 
proselytes might enter, and where the money-changers had their tables, 
and doves and beasts were sold for sacrifice.* The cloister on the east 
side was called Solomon's Porch ; and here our Savior walked and 
taught,f and here Peter and John, addressed the multitude later.J Steps 
led upward from the Court of the Gentiles to an inner terrace inclosed 
by a stone screen, on which were hung notices threatening death to any 
foreigner who should pass within. Part of this space formed the Court 
of the Women ; then came the Courts of the Men and the Priests; and 
on a still higher platform stood the Temple itself, reached by ten gates, 
nine of them resplendent with gold and silver, and the tenth or " Beau- 
tiful Gate " of the temple made of precious Corinthian brass covered 
with plates of gold. Truly splendid must have been these buildings in 
the days of Christ. 

But wearied with the effort to reconstruct these things in imagination 
we passed to the Mosque of Omar, that stands on a raised platform of 
marble and is an octagonal structure — each side 67 or 68 feet long and 
36 feet high, while the height of the dome including the platform is 170 
feet. The exterior walls are cased with colored marbles to a height of 
16 feet, and above that are covered with porcelain tiles, and a frieze of 
tiles extends around the building on which are written passages from 
the Koran. There are four entrances facing the cardinal points, and 
seven round-arched windows on each side, i. e\, 56 windows in all, filled 
with beautiful stained glass. The mosque was built between 688 and 
693 A. D. We entered at the east door, having first put on great coarse 
slippers over our shoes. Within we stepped into a cloister 13 feet wide, 
inclosed by a wrought-iron screen divided by piers and columns of 
noticeable beauty. Within this was a space 30 feet wide, and then a 
second iron screen or railing encircling a mass of rough native rock, the 
top of the sacred mountain. This second railing was relieved by four 
massive piers and twelve elegant Corinthian columns of variegated mar- 
ble with gilded capitals, which support the dome 66 feet wide at its base. 

We looked over this screen at the mass of rock with the keenest 
interest. For it is believed that this was the spot where Melchizedek 
sacrificed ; § where Abraham offered up his son Isaac ; || where stood in 
David's time the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, which David 



*John 2 : 14-16. 
I Gen. 14: 18. 



f John 10 : 23. 
|j Gen. 22 : 2. 



% Acts 3:11 and 5:12. 



106 AD OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

by inspiration fixed as the site of the future temple that Solomon actu- 
ally built there.* We saw in the midst of the rock a hole, over which it 
is supposed the altar of burnt-offering stood ; the refuse and blood pass- 
ing down through the hole and by a conduit below to the valley of the 
Kedron. The Moslems have a legend, that this rock descended from 
heaven and is suspended in the air; that Mohammed ascended to 
heaven through the hole in the rock ; and that the rock following him 
in his ascent the angel Gabriel laid hold of it and held it down. We 
were shown several round holes on one side of the rock, two or three 
inches in diameter, as the indentations made by the angel's fingers. 
Another legend is connected with a small slab of verde antique set in 
the fine mosaic pavement of the mosque. This slab is full of nail-holes 
and has three and a half nails sticking in it. The Moslems say that 
there were originally nineteen nails in the slab, and that the Devil drove 
them all through but these three and a half; and that when these dis- 
appear the end of the world will come. So they keep the slab in this 
holy place to preserve it, and prevent the Devil from finishing his work. 
They showed us also a case in which are said to be treasured up seven 
hairs from the beard of Mohammed. By touching the case with one's 
hand, through a hole, the blessing of the prophet is secured. Of course 
we all reached in and gained the blessing ; whatever it might be worth. 

Then we descended to a cave below in the rock, where probably 
Araunah the Jebusite kept his grain after threshing it, to hide it from 
robbers ; as to this day it is the custom in Palestine to hide everything 
precious. Here comes through the hole from above ; and in the centre 
of the floor of the cave is a slab, covering what the Mohammedans call 
the W T ell of the Spirits, into which they say all spirits descend, and 
whence they will be brought up to judgment by the hair of their heads. 
Probably this was the passage by which the blood and refuse of the sacri- 
fices offered above passed down to the Kedron. The floor and sides of 
the cave sound hollow; a proof, the Mohammedans say, that this 
mountain is hung in the air. Around the sides of the cave they showed 
us the praying-places of Abraham, David, Solomon, Elijah and Moham- 
med. At the last day they believe that the Black Stone of Mecca will 
come to this gray rock of Jerusalem, and the blast of the trumpet will 
summon all men to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for judgment ; and then 
Mohammed, assisted by Jesus, will sit on a round porphyry column pro- 
jecting from the east wall of the Haram and will execute judgment. 



* I Chron. 22 : i. 



THE MOSQUE OF OMAR AND BE THESE A. 107 



Sated with these legends we left the Mosque of Omar, and crossed the 
court to the Mosque El-Aksa, which stands at its south end. This was 
originally a church built by the Emperor Justinian, about the middle of 
the 6th century, in honor of the Virgin ; but was enlarged and beau- 
tified by the Crusaders, when it became the Church of the Knights 
Templar, whose residence adjoined. It is a handsome building, 272 
feet long by 184 wide. In front of it is a large cistern, into which the 
water comes by an aqueduct from Solomon's Pools, south of Bethlehem. 
This is believed to be the place where Solomon's Brazen Sea stood, 
affording facilities for the ablutions of the priests. Entering the mosque, 
as it is now, the first thing we noticed was a slab in the pavement mark- 
ing the grave of a Knight Templar. The lofty roof is supported by 45 
columns, most of them being marble, and a dome rises in the centre. 
The wood-work of the pulpit is exquisitely carved and inlaid with ivory 
and gold. It was made at Damascus and brought here by Saladin. At 
the back of it is a stone said to bear the imprint of Christ's foot. The 
apse looking toward Mecca is lined with colored marbles. 

Leaving the mosque we descended a long flight of steps at the south- 
eastern corner of the Haram or inclosure, and came to a small vaulted 
chamber, where we were shown what the Moslems call the cradle of the 
prophet Jesus — a hollowed block of alabaster shaped like a shell. Here 
they say that Simeon * dwelt, and that the Virgin was entertained by 
him for some days as his guest, when Jesus was brought to be circum- 
cised. From this room we descended to a series of vast underground 
vaults, where we gazed admiringly upon the substructions of the temple- 
area — great stone arches and massive columns supporting the platform 
above that was built to enlarge the space for the temple-courts. These 
subterranean chambers are called Solomon's Stables, for some think 
that Solomon kept his horses there. Possibly so ; some of the lower 
stones are bevelled, like the work of Solomon's day ; but most of the 
stone-work seems to belong to the Herodian period, and some is still 
later. At least there is little doubt that the Knights Templar kept their 
horses here. In the corners of many of the columns are cut round 
holes, through which halters to tie the horses could readily be run. 

We came up and walked along the east side of the inclosure, on the 
site of Solomon's Porch, where our Savior walked during "the feast of 
the dedication," in winter, f and delivered that remarkable discourse 
recorded by John, in which He so distinctly claimed divinity. And 



* Luke 2 : 25. 



f John 10 : 23. 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



there we saw the famous Golden Gate in the solid wall ; once the chief 
entrance to the temple-court from the east, and in the time of the 
Crusaders open on Palm Sunday to allow the Patriarch to ride in amid 
a great procession, bearing palm-branches and strewing the ground 
before him with their clothes, in imitation of the entry of Christ. Long 
since it has been walled up by the Mohammedans, who have a tradition 
that when this gate is opened Moslem power will be destroyed. As we 
passed we put up a silent prayer, that the time may soon come when 
this gate shall be wide open ; when Islam shall fall, and the Divine 
King shall have His own. 

Leaving the Haram or court of the mosque by its northeastern gate 
we went to see the Church of St. Anne, in the immediate neighborhood. 
This is a modern restoration of an old church of the Crusaders, that was 
found here in a good state of preservation, when the ground was exca- 
vated, which had been given by the Sultan to Emperor Napoleon III of 
France, at the close of the Crimean war. It is said that a nunnery was 
connected with it in the time of the Crusades, and that here Baldwin I 
compelled his wife to take the veil. But it is interesting not merely as 
a fine specimen of the pure Gothic architecture of that period ; rather 
because it is supposed to be on the site of the house of St. Anne, the 
mother of the Virgin Mary. This it is claimed was the birth-place of 
the Blessed Virgin, and on this spot she lived before she became a resi- 
dent of Nazareth, when the angel Gabriel made annunciation to her 
of the dignity divinely conferred upon her.* 

Near this church there is a very large pit or basin, mostly excavated 
from the native rock, which has long been believed to be the Pool of 
Bethesda, where Jesus healed the impotent man who had an infirmity 
thirty and eight years. | At least the tradition to this effect runs back 
to the 1 2th century. The measurements of this basin are stated to be 
360 feet long, 126 feet wide, and 80 feet deep ; but it is so far filled 
with rubbish that the depth is not realized. The north wall of the 
Haram borders it. If the Revised Version of John 5 : 2, which states that 
the Pool of Bethesda was by the sheep gate, is correct, and if the sheep 
gate is to be identified with St. Stephen's Gate, then this basin is in the 
locality of the ancient Bethesda. And its style of construction shows it 
must have been made for a reservoir of water. But its great depth 
would seem to forbid the idea that cripples and blind and diseased per- 
sons were wont to step down into it to be healed. 



Luke 1 : 26-28. 



f John 5 : 1-9. 



THE MOSQUE OF OMAR AND BETHESDA. 109 



It has long been disputed whether this or the Fountain of the Virgin 
in the Kedron valley was the pool of Bethesda ; but recent discoveries 
have offered a more probable identification than either. Not far away 
from this great basin the remains of another old church on a lower level 
than the Church of St. Anne have been unearthed, and we went down 
by a flight of steps to see the ruins, which probably date back to early 
Christian times. From the level of the church a stone stair-case leads 
down to extensive vaults below, where there is a pool of water in a basin 
cut out of the native rock with five stone arches over it. I walked 
down the slippery steps and saw this pool and the five arches, and felt 
satisfied that this was probably the original pool of Bethesda. The five 
arches correspond in number to the five porches that John mentions as 
connected with Bethesda, and the depth below the present surface of 
the ground, some thirty or forty feet, indicates the antiquity of this con- 
struction. Doubtless the early Christians built the old church, whose 
ruins lie above, to preserve the site of Bethesda as a place made sacred 
by the Saviour's miracle. And the church was in turn covered by the 
mass of ruins and debris, till revealed by recent exploration. 

Perhaps this discovery may be taken as an illustration of the impor- 
tance of those excavations that are now being carried on in Jerusalem 
and elsewhere in the Holy Land. Modern research has by no means 
exhausted its usefulness there, but we have reason to expect from it 
valuable additions to our present knowledge of localities, buildings and 
relics, and aids to the solution of some of those problems that have long 
perplexed archaeologists. In our day the spade and the pick have be- 
come commentators. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

T the Church of St. Anne and the supposed pool of Bethesda we 
were not far from the reputed site of Pilate's Judgment Hall. 
We were near the eastern end of the Via Dolorosa, that starts 
at St. Stephen's Gate, on the east side of Jerusalem, and runs past the 
Judgment Hall and to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The site of 
the Judgment Hall is usually identified with the Serai, or mansion of 
the Pasha of Jerusalem, and the Turkish barracks on the northwest 
corner of the Haram or Temple inclosure. Here stood the Tower of 
Antonia in Christ's day, occupied by Roman soldiers keeping watch 
over the riotous Jews. Some of the old stones of the Tower remain 
built into the present structure, which is comparatively modern and is a 
square tower some forty feet high. Now " the palace," as the Revised 
Version has it, or "the hall of judgment," as our Authorized Version 
calls it * — in Greek the praetorium — was in all probability connected 
with the Tower of Antonia. Some have thought that Pilate occupied 
the Palace of Herod on Mount Zion. inferring this from a general 
statement of Josephus that the Roman governors of Judea, when they 
were in Jerusalem, converted the palace of Herod into a prsetorium or 
official residence. But if Pilate did so, where did Herod Antipas dwell 
who had come to Jerusalem to keep the Passover at the time of Christ's 
arrest ? The word praetorium meant originally the tent of the general 
in the Roman camp • then it came to signify the residence of the prae- 
tor or provincial ruler, where the court of justice was held. It would 
naturally be connected with the soldiers' barracks and the state prison. 
And so we find that when the Roman soldiers led Christ into the prae- 
torium to mock Him, they " called together the whole band," which 
would seem to imply the garrison rather than a few guards. Hence it 

* John 18 : 28, 33. 



THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. in 



is most probable that Pilate's residence and Judgment Hall were in or 
adjoining the Tower of Antonia. And so Christian tradition has always 
held. 

In front of the prsetorium Christ was cruelly scourged by Pilate's 
order, and in memory of it has been erected the Chapel of the Flagel- 
lation. The stairs by which our Saviour descended from the prsetorium 
to be led to the crucifixion have been removed, according to tradition, 
to a building adjoining the Church of St. John Lateran in Rome. They 
consist of 28 marble steps cased with wood to prevent them from being 
worn away. No foot is ever allowed to tread these steps, but people 
climb up them on their knees, repeating a Paternoster or Ave Maria on 
each step. There is always a number of pilgrims, both men and 
women, toiling up these stairs and often bowing down to kiss them. 
They descend on foot by other staircases parallel to the sacred one. 
The story has often been told, how Martin Luther, when he made his 
pilgrimage to Rome, went up this Holy Staircase ; and while doing so 
recalled the words of Scripture, " The just shall live by faith," * which 
showed him the folly of the superstitious practice. There are two nota- 
ble statues at the foot of the staircase on either side ; -one represents 
Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss ; and the other Pilate presenting Jesus 
to the people with the touching words, Ecce Homo, Behold the Man ! 

Christian art has indeed been busy in portraying our Saviour in con- 
nection with Pilate's Judgment Hall. Who, that has seen that wonder- 
ful painting by the Hungarian artist Munkacsy, entitled "Christ before 
Pilate," which was exhibited in New York a few years ago, will forget 
the overwhelming impression it produced on the mind ? What a master- 
piece was the figure of Pilate sitting upon the judgment- seat ! his round 
military head bent in deep thought, his eyes downcast, the perplexed 
and irritated expression upon his face, while he pondered how to get rid 
of the case — to satisfy the enraged multitude, yet to avoid shedding the 
blood of the innocent. Even the very twisting of his fingers showed 
the concentration of his mind upon the disagreeable business before 
him. Then the faces of the scribes and elders and Pharisees were per- 
fectly studied, and expressed the mingled haughtiness and subserviency, 
the hatred and envy and fear, of Christ's enemies. The unreasoning 
prejudice of the Jewish crowd, the stolid contempt of Roman soldiers, 
the pity and curiosity of some spectators; all found suitable portrayal 
on the canvass. Only the face of our Saviour was unsatisfactorily exe- 

* Rom. 1 : 17. 



112 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



cuted. Here the artist failed, as all delineators of our Saviour's face 
have failed, and must fail. So too one may speak of Gustave Dore's 
celebrated painting of " Christ leaving the Praetorium," of which so 
many reproductions have been made. Admirable as is its conception 
of the scene and its pictures of various characters in the crowd, it fails 
adequately to set forth the Divine Man who is going to His sacrifice. 

Opposite the site of the Praetorium, across the narrow Via Dolorosa, 
or Sorrowful street, stands the Roman Catholic Convent of Our Lady 
of Zion. Here is seen the half of a great stone arch spanning the alley, 
the remaining half of the arch running inside the wall of the convent. 
This arch, apparently a piece of Roman work, was discovered some 
years ago, when they were excavating for the foundations of the con- 
vent. It is called the Ecce Homo Arch, because it is believed to have 
been a part of Pilate's Judgment Hall, and the very portal where Pilate 
showed Jesus to the Jews and said, "Behold the man."* Some how- 
ever dispute this, and think that the arch dates only from the time of 
the Emperor Hadrian. We entered the Convent of the Sisters, who 
keep an orphanage. They took care of the children of those who were 
massacred by the Druses in Syria, and have now about a hundred 
orphan girls there, whom they educate. Among other things they teach 
the girls to mount wild flowers very prettily on cards, and to make 
needle- work for sale to visitors. One of the Sisters conducted us into 
their chapel, built parallel with the street, where we saw behind the altar 
the missing section of the great arch running within the chapel-wall, and 
alongside of it a smaller and lower arch. Of course there must have 
been originally another small arch on the other side of the large middle 
arch, and this would have been on the other side of the present street. 
There could be no doubt that these round arches were ancient Roman 
work ; and it is not unlikely that they belonged to Pilate's time. 

At the further end of the Chapel stood an old stone pedestal found 
there when the convent was built, such as was used in Roman times for 
an officer to stand on when making proclamation of decrees and judg- 
ments. On the side of this rear part of the Chapel was a piece of old 
Roman wall which the modern builders allowed to remain in situ. 
Leaving the Chapel we descended into the basement, where we saw 
another similar pedestal or a section of it used for the proclamation of 
edicts. And here we walked over a long piece of ancient Roman pave- 
ment, which is believed to have been just outside Pilate's Praetorium, 

* John 19 : 5. 



THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 113 



and to have been the Pavement referred to by John when he says that 
Pilate " brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment-seat in a 
place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha." * 
We were much impressed with the probability that here we were tread- 
ing upon the very stones once pressed by our Savior's feet. We went 
below this floor to a sub-basement and saw the substructions of the 
pavement — massive supporting piers and an arched way leading to sim- 
ilar arched ways under the temple area and the Mosque of Omar. How 
solidly they built in those days of yore ! 

We came up and passed out into the narrow street ; called the Via 
Dolorosa or Sorrowful street, because believed to be the road by which 
Christ carrying His cross, went from the Pavement to Calvary. But, as 
already explained, the original road must have been at least twenty to 
thirty feet below the level of the present street, and there is no possible 
proof that it followed the same lines and turns as the latter, which dates 
back only to the 14th century. These facts however have not hindered 
pious invention from identifying and designating every point on the 
street at which the various incidents recorded in the Gospels, or asserted 
by tradition, took place. There are fourteen stations for prayer in the 
Via Dolorosa, for so many times they say Christ stopped on the way to 
Calvary. These Fourteen Stations of the Cross, as they are called, we 
often see pictured on the walls of Roman Catholic churches or wrought 
into the stained-glass windows ; and the faithful are wont to pray before 
each of them in turn. They are such as these : the place where Christ 
sank under the cross ; that where Simon the Cyrenian was compelled to 
bear it ; that where Christ turned to the mourning women and said. 
" Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and 
for your children ; " f the spot where Christ halted a moment to lean 
against the wall, and was rudely repulsed by the owner, who was there- 
upon doomed to wander homeless till the end of the world ; and the 
spot where Veronica wiped the brow of our Savior with her handker- 
chief, and His features became imprinted upon it ! All these tradi- 
tional localities were pointed out to us as we went along ; and also the 
reputed site of the house of the Rich Man of the parable, and the stone 
on which the beggar Lazarus sat at his gate. Needless to say that we 
had no faith in any of these identifications. 

The street has many turns and zigzags, and is arched over in places 



*JohnT9:i3. f Luke 23 : 28. 

8 



H4 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



and houses built above it. so that one seems to be walking through a 
tunnel. It leads to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which has been 
for ages the most interesting and sacred spot in Jerusalem to Christians 
of every name. Built by Constantine, it is especially associated with 
the long continuing wars of the Crusades from 1095 to 1274. in which 
the Christian nations of Europe fought with the Saracens for the pos- 
session of the sepulchre of Christ and the city of Jerusalem and the 
Holy Land in general. To us this seems to have been a visionary and 
crack-brained undertaking, in which an immense amount of blood and 
treasure was uselessly lavished. But to the semi-barbarous and super- 
stitous warriors of Europe, it appeared a noble and holy mission to res- 
cue what they believed to be the tomb of their Lord from the polluting 
hand of the infidel. After incredible hardships and losses the Christian 
armies gained Jerusalem and erected a Christian kingdom there, which 
endured in various forms for a hundred and fifty years till finally swept 
away by the Moslems. 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was remodelled by the Crusaders 
in the 12th century, who built its impressive front that looks down into 
an open paved space — a favorite resort of sellers of mother-of-pearl and 
olive-wood souvenirs. There were once two great round-arched door- 
ways into the church ■ but one has been walled up entirely, and the 
upper part of the other has been tilled in so that one enters by a low 
door under the carved work. The first thing seen within is somewhat 
surprising ; a guard of Turkish officials and soldiers stationed near the 
door to keep the peace between the rival Christian sects, who have joint 
possession of the building, and who, if it were not for the presence of 
these infidel guards, would soon fly at one another's throats. Fearful 
riots between these sects have taken place there at times, and the Turks 
are present to prevent bloodshed. A sad commentary 7 this upon the 
lack of unity or even fraternity in Christendom. 

The immense church is about 350 feet long and 280 feet .wide, and 
includes a large number of chapels and sacred places. In fact there 
are within it thirty-seven stations, at which the different sects — Greeks, 
Roman Catholics. Armenians, Syrians, and Copts — hold sendees. I will 
not attempt to mention all of them, only those we visited. The first 
we observed on entering was the Stone of Unction, where they say the 
bodv of our Savior was laid and anointed when taken down from the 
cross. The original slab however is not seen : being covered by another 
stone slab, which the faithful devoutly kiss upon their knees. This part 



THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 



of the church is the property of the Armenians, and here we saw them 
holding service as we came out. Next we saw an iron cage to the left, 
said to mark the spot where the Virgin Mary stood to see what would 
be done with the body of Christ. A few steps further is the little 
wooden chapel of the Copts, about as large as a good-sized closet, built 
directly in the rear of the Holy Sepulchre, that stands in the Rotunda. 
This most ancient sect was the last to get a chapel here, and was 
given this place nearest to the Sepulchre, because all the other space 
was taken up. West of this we visited the very plain chapel of the 
Syrians, out of which open several tombs cut in the native rock. Two 
of them are said to be those of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathsea. 
At any rate they are believed to be ancient Jewish tombs ; confirming 
the tradition that this spot was in Christ's time outside the city walls, 
though now so far within them. 

On the north of the Sepulchre, in the Rotunda, we saw in an open 
space the spot where it is said that Mary met our Lord and supposed 
Him to be the gardener. Going up a few steps to the Chapel of the 
Latins or Roman Catholics, we saw the Chapel of the Apparition, so 
called because here they claim that Christ appeared to Mary after His 
resurrection. In the Latin Chapel we found an altar upon which lay a 
stick, called the Rod of Moses ; and doing as the others did, I poked 
the rod through a round hole over the altar and touched with it a piece 
of stone column, to which they say Christ was bound when scourged. 
The faithful afterwards kiss the end of the stick that touched the col- 
umn. Near this is a sacristy where we were shown the long, heavy 
sword and spurs and necklace of Godfrey, the celebrated Crusader. 
Coming out we learned that the Greek Bishop and clergy had just 
passed from the Sepulchre into their chapel to render the daily service, 
and we followed them into the chapel, which is directly in front of the 
sepulchre and is much the largest and handsomest of all the chapels. A 
column in the floor marks, it is asserted, the centre of the world, and 
from this spot the earth was taken to make Adam. A great number of 
lamps and candles illumined the scene, and the Bishop, a venerable man 
with long white beard and moustache and wearing spectacles, sat on an 
exalted throne at one side, while the clergy and choir read prayers and 
rendered the chants. 

Tiring of the elaborate service in an unintelligible language we with- 
drew from the crowd in the Greek chapel and went to the Holy Sepul- 
chre itself, that stands under the great dome 67 feet across. It is a 



n6 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



structure of red marble, 26 x 18 feet, decorated on the outside with gilt 
nosegays and pictures, and countless lamps of silver and gold that on 
festival days are lighted with brilliant effect. It consists of two cham- 
bers. The outward one, called the Angel's Chapel, has in the centre 
of it a stone that is said to be a piece of the stone which closed the door 
of our Lord's sepulchre, and which the angel rolled back and sat upon. 
Pilgrims are wont to take off their shoes before entering this sacred 
place, and to kiss the stone, but we kept our shoes on and were content 
to touch the stone with our hands. From this chamber we passed 
through a low doorway about four and a half feet high into a little room 
only six by seven feet in size, cased with shining marble and illumined 
by 42 golden and silver hanging lamps kept always burning. Only 
three or four of us could stand here at once with the attendant. The 
reputed tomb of our Savior is covered by a marble slab — six feet long, 
three wide and two high — much worn by the lips of pilgrims and cracked 
through the middle. The attendant opened in the rear wall a door 
made by a painting of the Virgin Mary, and showed us behind it the 
native rock from which the tomb was excavated. Then he sprinkled 
our heads with holy water scented with rose before we went out! 

In the side wall, near the entrance to the Angel's Chapel, we saw the 
hole through which the so-called " Holy Fire " is given to an immense 
crowd on the day before the Greek Easter. After special services the 
Greek Patriarch enters the sepulchre alone and presently passes out a 
lighted torch through this hole, and the fire is said to be miraculously 
given from heaven. The expectant and enthusiastic concourse of people, 
who have been struggling with one another to get the nearest places to 
the scene of the miracle, light their candles from this torch, and the fire 
is carried through the city and the land. It is the most thrilling event 
of the whole year in Jerusalem, travellers tell us who have witnessed it ; 
we unfortunately were a fortnight too early for the spectacle. 

But we saw some other sacred places in the church ; such as the 
Chapel of the Prison, where Christ was kept bound, and that of the spot 
where the executioners cast lots for His garments. We also descended 
a flight of 29 steps on the east side of the building to the Chapel of St. 
Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine, who in the year 326 
A. D., when she was nearly eighty years old, visited the Holy Land and 
built a church at Bethlehem on the spot where she believed Christ was 
born, and another on the Mount of Olives to mark the spot whence He 
ascended to heaven. She is said to have discovered in a cave below 



THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 117 



the original cross on which Christ was crucified. The story is, that she 
sat where the chapel has been built in her honor directing the workmen 
in their search ; that three crosses were found below with the nails, the 
crown of thorns, and the superscription written by Pilate ; that they did 
not know which of the three was the true cross of Christ ; that by sug- 
gestion of the Bishop Macarius a noble lady of Jerusalem, who was 
dying of an incurable disease, was touched by each of the three crosses 
in turn, and as soon as the third touched her she was immediately cured ; 
and thus the identity of the true cross was established. The cavern 
where the crosses were found according to this story has also been made 
into a chapel, called the " Chapel of the Lnvention of the Cross " — very 
appro) >riately named, we should say. It contains an altar, a cross sculp- 
tured in the stone, and a statue of St. Helena, and is thirteen steps be- 
low the chapel called by her name. The latter is really a church, 
5 1 x 43 feet, with carved pillars, lofty arches, and glittering lamps. Some 
say it was built by her son Constantine 337 A. D. Others, that it is on 
the site of his church. It contains two altars, one to Helena and one 
to the Penitent Robber. 

We returned to the level of the aisle and then ascended by another 
flight of steps about fifteen feet to what is called Mount Calvary or Gol- 
gotha, over which a chapel has been built. In its eastern end, under 
the altar, they showed us through an opening in the pavement faced 
with silver the spot where they say Christ's cross was sunk in the native 
rock, and on either side of it the depressions where the crosses of the 
two malefactors crucified with Him stood. A few feet to the right is a 
brass slide in the floor, which they draw aside and display a rent in the 
rock, which they say was made at the time of the Crucifixion. Further 
to the right is another altar, over which is a picture of the Virgin Mary 
decorated with diamonds and costly stones. Pilgrims are often greatly 
moved here, believing that they stand upon the very place of their 
Savior's crucifixion. But to me there was an atmosphere of unreality 
about everything I saw in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre ; it was 
but a museum of religious curiosities, a collection under one roof of too 
many localities and relics to secure belief. " The thing is overdone," 
I thought, as we left the Calvary and by a flight of stairs went down 
into the Chapel of Adam under the Chapel of the Crucifixion. Here 
we saw the tombs of Godfrey of Bouillon and of Baldwin, the famous 
Crusaders, and an altar standing, it is claimed, over the tomb of Mel- 



n8 A DO MINE IN BIB IE IANDS. 

chizedec ; and here they say Adam was buried under the spot where 
the cross afterwards stood. 

Decidedly there are too large demands made here upon credulity for 
a Protestant to meet them. He is inclined to doubt seriously whether 
Christ was crucified and buried in this locality. He remembers that 
the tradition to this effect goes back only to the time of Constantine 
and Helena, prior to whom all knowledge of the situation of Calvary 
was lost by reason of the repeated destructions of the city. Eusebius, 
the church historian and contemporary of Constantine, asserts that the 
latter discovered the sites of Calvary and the Sepulchre by a miracle, and 
that he built a church over them, which was dedicated in presence of 
a council of bishops, among whom was Eusebius himself. But he says 
nothing about the discovery of the true cross by St. Helena ; this story 
was started a full century later, when the building of the church was 
also ascribed to her. Such conflicting traditions and the introduction 
of miraculous agency have led many modern scholars to doubt whether 
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains the real sites of Christ's cru- 
cifixion and burial. The more so, since the gospels assert that these 
events took place outside the city's walls, and the proof is not satisfac- 
tory that these sites were outside the walls in Christ's day. We were 
shown indeed, in Christian street, the remains of an ancient arched 
gate, which is supposed to have been a gate of the old wall, and to 
prove that the wall formed a loop here, leaving the site of the Church 
of the Holy Sepulchre outside. And we visited a new Russian Con- 
vent near the church, which incloses portions of an old wall and gate, 
from whose positions the same conclusion is drawn, confirming the tra- 
ditional view. The best scholars, however, are not yet satisfied upon 
these points. Some think the site of Calvary to have been outside St. 
Stephen's Gate, on the east side of the city. And some think it to have 
been on that rounded hill north of the Damascus Gate, to which refer- 
ence has already been made. But is it not better that we should not 
know the precise spot ? Does not the idolatrous reverence paid to 
these supposed holy places inclosed in the Church of the Sepulchre 
show us that God has wisely hidden from us the true Calvary, that in- 
stead of worshipping relics we may worship Christ risen and enthroned 
in Heaven? 



CHAPTER XV. 



On Mount Zion. 



,HE sacred historian tells us how David, who had reigned in 
Hebron over the tribe of Judah seven years and a half, when he 
was made king over all the twelve tribes of Israel sought a new 
capital. Hebron was too far south and too much at one side to be the 
capital of united Israel, nor was it politic to give that honor to his own 
tribe of Judah. On the other hand David seems to have been averse 
to the selection of a town among the northern tribes ; perhaps he felt 
safer to be in the vicinity of Judah. He very shrewdly and successfully 
solved the problem by fixing upon Jerusalem ; a town belonging to 
the territory of Benjamin, which was the tribe of his predecessor King 
Saul, but just on the northern border of Judah, and a natural strong- 
hold that was eminently fit to be the capital of a warlike king. More- 
over, it had never been taken by the Israelites from the Jebusites, the 
original inhabitants of the land ; and hence its capture now would give 
reputation and strength to the new reign — would be a brilliant stroke of 
policy at the outset. 

David therefore and his men marched against Jerusalem. But the 
Jebusites who occupied it scorned his attempt ; and secure, as they 
thought, in their impregnable position upon steep and lofty Mount Zion, 
sneeringly said, " Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou 
shalt not come in hither." * That is, they intimated that the blind and 
lame were sufficient to defend the walls against David's forces ; perhaps 
in derision they actually brought out the blind and the lame, and set 
them on the walls. David however carried the place by storm, and 
" dwelt in the fort, and called it the City of David." f This new name 
adhered to the stronghold on Mount Zion through the reigns of all his 
descendants ; while David himself gained no small prestige by his con- 



* II Sam. 5 : 6. 



f II Sam. 5 : g. 



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A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



quest of Jerusalem. Here he established his capital ; fortified it by new 
walls and towers ; enlarged and beautified and enriched it as his power 
increased. And his son and successor, Solomon, did still more in these 
directions than did David. 

But this bit of ancient history makes Mount Zion, the southwestern 
hill of Jerusalem, a very interesting part of the city to a modern tourist. 
It is the part most closely associated with the name of David. And it 
seems very fitting to the visitor, that when he has entered the city by 
the Jaffa Gate on the west side, he should be told that the street in 
which he is walking is called David street; that having walked a block 
he should turn to the right, and be told that he is in Zion street • and 
that then he should see on his right hand a massive quadrangular tower, 
now the citadel, which he is informed is the Tower of David. It stands 
on a great substructure rising at a slope of about 45 degrees from the 
ditch below. Above this, the tower for twenty-nine feet in height is a 
solid mass of stone, and above this the superstructure contains several 
chambers. The stones of the substruction are large blocks, many of 
them ten feet long, and have a smooth surface. Those of the solid part 
of the tower are rough-faced. I was not surprised to be told by the 
guide that the former date back to the time of the Jebusites ; that the 
middle part of the tower is to be ascribed to David ; and that the upper 
part is modern. The best authorities however do not so hold. They 
assure us that the structure bears the name of the Tower of David only 
because of a tradition that David's Palace stood on this spot ; that it 
was in fact one of three great towers that Herod built on the north side 
of his palace and pleasure-grounds; and that it alone survived the 
destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Titus. This is probably the 
correct view ; the lower parts of the Tower are Herodian, the super- 
structure Moslem. 

But even so, bow interesting it is to think that this Tower, in part at 
least, was standing here in our Savior's day. That He often looked 
upon it, and that probably He walked by it more than once the last 
night He spent on earth, when He went to the upper room further 
west, on Mount Zion, where He kept the Last Passover Supper with 
His disciples, and went thence across the city to the Mount of Olives 
and Gethsemane ; and then having been arrested was dragged to the 
house of Caiaphas on the hill, and thence to Pilate's Judgment Hall, 
and back to Mount Zion to Herod's Palace, and then again to the 
Judgment Hall. However differently the streets may have been laid 



ON MO UNT ZION. 



121 



out in those days from what they are now, our Savior must at least have 
passed within sight of this Tower upon that fatal night. Could these 
time-worn stones speak, what stories they could tell of all that they 
witnessed then and since then, through centuries of war and blood-shed 
and repeated sieges and overthrows. Certainly there is no sight in 
Jerusalem more memorable and impressive than this so-called Tower of 
David. 

A short distance further, on the opposite side of Zion street, stands 
the English Church, Christ Church, where I attended service the Sun- 
day that we spent in Jerusalem, and heard from the Rector a sermon 
appropriate to Palm Sunday. The church was well filled with both 
English and American people, and prayer was offered for the President 
of the United States, as well as for Queen Victoria and the Royal Fam- 
ily of England. Zion street runs on to Zion gate on the summit of the 
ridge, and near the gate we found the Armenian Convent, a cluster of 
large buildings, including not only the Monastery and the Church of St. 
James, but the residence of the Armenian Patriarch and his attending 
priests, and a Hospice said to accommodate 8,000 pilgrims, and several 
shops and a printing office. There are also extensive gardens connected 
with the Convent — the finest in Jerusalem. Perhaps it should be stated 
just here that the principal buildings in modern Jerusalem are these 
great Convents and Hospices erected by the different Christian com- 
munions, to represent them in the Holy City and to be headquarters for 
their pilgrims. The imposing edifices of the Russian Greek Church on 
the northwest side of the city, outside the walls, have already been men- 
tioned. And the Latins and the Syrians and the Copts have similar 
establishments. 

We entered the Church of St. James, which is said to be built on the 
site where he was beheaded by King Herod. The lower portions of 
the columns supporting the roof were covered with quaint tiles, made 
formerly in Damascus, but the art of making them has long been lost. On 
the left side of the church we were shown a little chapel that marks the 
very spot of the beheading. Its doors are beautifully inlaid with ivory 
and mother-of-pearl and silver. In front of the altar stood the chair of 
the first Patriarch of Jerusalem,who they say followed St. James, and who 
was also named James. He was slaughtered here by the enemies of Chris- 
tianity, while he was celebrating service, and his blood ran down on the 
handsome mosaic pavement before the altar. The spot is inclosed by 
a rail in front of his chair. Not even the Patriarch can sit in this chair, 



122 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



but occupies another alongside of it. This is said to be the richest 
church in Jerusalem, possessed of many jewels which they display on 
the altar at Easter. The altar was covered with a curtain, but they re- 
moved it for us to see the gilded work on the altar, and a beautiful sil- 
ver lamp kept burning before it. On the right side of the church we 
visited the chapel of the Three Holy Stones, which are seen inclosed in 
a case near the altar. One of them was taken from Sinai, where "Moses 
received the law ; one from the river Jordan, where the Israelites 
crossed it ; and one from Mount Tabor, the traditional scene of the 
Transfiguration. A portion of these stones can be reached through a 
round hole in the grating over them, and the faithful kiss them devoutly, 
supposing that some spiritual benefit is thus obtained. 

When we came outside the church we were shown two sounding bars, 
one of iron and one of wood, that were formerly used to call the people 
to sendee, when the Mohammedans would not allow Christians to use 
church bells. Opposite us was a garden, believed to be on the site of 
Herod's palace and gardens, and two old pine trees growing there looked 
almost old enough to have been planted by Herod himself. We passed 
out of the city by the Zion Gate, and having walked a short distance, 
entered through iron doors into what they call the city of Zion, that is 
outside the present walls of Jerusalem. Here we visited an old church 
now in the possession of the Mohammedans, the successor of one built 
by St. Helena, on what was believed to be the site of the room in which 
our Lord and His Apostles partook of the Last Supper. We ascended a 
flight of steps into a large upper chamber 50x30 feet, that is commonly 
called the Ccenaculum. or Supper Chamber ; though, of course, this is 
quite apochryphal, as the Jerusalem of our Lord's day lies buried un- 
der thirty or forty feet of ruins. It is a plain, bare room, with vaulted 
ceiling, divided in the middle by pillars that are said to have been taken 
from Solomon's temple. 

Traditionally it was in the room of the Last Supper that the Dis- 
ciples were assembled on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost 
came upon them. Hence as we went up a short flight of steps from 
the Coenaculum. and visited a room called the Tomb of David, below 
which it is claimed that David and the other kings of Judah are buried, 
we saw the significance of Peter's reference to the Tomb of David in 
his sermon on the day of Pentecost : " Men and brethren, let me freely 
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, 



ON MO UNT ZION 



123 



and his sepulchre is with us unto this day." * Very naturally and ap- 
propriately would Peter have said this, if he and the other Disciples 
had been holding their meeting alongside of the Tomb of David. We 
merely looked into the room that is over the . Tomb, but the Moham- 
medans allow nobody to go below. Once only a lady, the daughter of 
Dr. J. T. Barclay, was permitted to visit the cave below, where she saw 
three sarcophagi with the names of David, Solomon and Rehoboam 
upon them. So sacred indeed is held to be the room above the tombs, 
that we could only look into it ; we could not step within. They say 
that twice a year a man goes into the room after bathing seven times, 
and sweeps it, and the dust is then sent as a present to wealthy Mo- 
hammedans, who give gold in return for it. 

From the Tomb of David we passed to a chapel also outside the 
present walls of Jerusalem, that is said to be built on the site of the pal- 
ace of Caiaphas. In the back of the altar are incorporated several 
pieces of stone asserted to have been taken from the top of our Savior's 
tomb. On the right of the altar as we stood before it there is a low door 
leading into a little closet-like chapel, about 5x4 feet, lined with blue 
tiles, where they say Christ was imprisoned in the house of Caiaphas. 
Small as the chapel is, we found an altar there with an Armenian prayer- 
book lying on it, and a picture of Christ above. In a court outside the 
building stood an altar on the identical spot where Peter denied his 
Master ! and we even had pointed out to us the place where the cock 
stood and crew to call Peter to remembrance and penitence ! This court 
is surrounded by a cloister containing tombs of the Armenian Patri- 
archs who have died in Jerusalem, and of bishops and monks, for it is 
esteemed holy ground, in which it is a great honor to be buried. Going 
down a flight of steps we came to another court on a lower level, in 
which a rich Armenian ordered that he should be buried, and in exca- 
vating here they found a piece of Roman mosaic flooring, that proves 
there must have been a fine mansion on this site in Roman times. 
This discovery, it is held, confirms the tradition that the house of Caia- 
phas stood here. We examined this mosaic pavement, which is un- 
doubtedly Roman work, and we saw the Armenian's handsome tomb 
built in 1885. There are two finely sculptured figures in marble, one 
each side of the monument, representing his son and daughter mourn- 
ing for him. 

From this point we went back into the city through Zion Gate, and 



*Acts 2:29. 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



retraced our steps on Zion street till we came to David street, which we 
descended a little way and turned off to visit the Pool of Hezekiah. 
Going up a staircase and passing through an upper room we came out 
upon a balcony from which we looked down into the great pool, 240 
feet long and 144 feet broad It was filled with water, which comes in 
winter by a drain from the Upper Pool, west of the Jaffa Gate. This is 
believed to be the reservoir king Hezekiah constructed, who, as we read 
in Second Kings, " made a pool and a conduit and brought water into 
the city." * Or, as we read in Second Chronicles, who " stopped the 
upper water-course of Gihon and brought it straight down to the west 
side of the city of David." f The pool is surrounded with houses and 
is never cleaned out, and the water is very foul. It is no longer used 
for drinking, only for washing. 

Not far from the Pool of Hezekiah we visited the ruins of the Muris- 
tan or Hospital of St. John, kept during the Crusades by the Knights of 
St. John, for the entertainment and relief of pilgrims. The institution 
was started in the nth century, and the monks who undertook to nurse 
the sick and poor pilgrims were called Brethren of the Hospital. After 
Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders these Hospitallers were raised 
to the dignity of a separate Order, which was sanctioned by the Pope, 
and a few years later by a fresh oath they became military defenders of 
the Cross. They were endowed with rich possessions in all parts of 
Europe, and to collect their income commanderies were formed there 
which became branch establishments. The Knights of St. John grew 
to be the most famous and the most long-lived of the Orders of military 
monks. The magnificence of their buildings in Jerusalem is attested 
to-day by the extent of their ruins. In 1869 the Sultan gave these 
ruins to the Crown Prince of Prussia, and excavations have been made, 
uncovering the old church and the cloister and the hospital. Some 
parts of the ruins it is dangerous to enter; but there one can get an 
idea of the amount of rubbish underlying much of the present city, for 
we could look down fifty feet into the old courts and streets of ancient 
Jerusalem. While the massive and finely sculptured stone pillars and 
arches strewed about convinced us how splendid must have been this 
monastic pile, when the Hospitallers or Knights of St. John rivalled that 
other celebrated Order of military monks, the Knights Templar, in 
wealth and power. 

On the eastern slope of Mount Zion and down in the Tyropoeon 



2 Kings 20 : 20. 



f 2 Chron. 32 : 30. 



ON MO UNT ZION. 



Valley is situated the Jewish [quarter ; which it was our misfortune to 
visit in the rain, when the indescribable filth of the narrow, winding 
streets was aggravated by being mixed with melting snow and mud. 
We first stopped at an old Jewish Synagogue that dates back to the 
time of Titus. Entering a low door on the street, we descended a long 
flight of narrow stone steps to the floor of the synagogue, which is very 
small and plain. On one side there is an upper gallery, where the 
women sit behind a wooden lattice on Sabbaths; for there is a company 
of Jews calling themselves the Karahim Jews who still worship in this 
underground place. They showed us manuscripts of the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures, 600 years old, and the rolls from which they read at present. 
They are few in numbers and very poor in resources. 

From this place we proceeded through the lower part of the city by 
nasty alleys, in one of which we saw a dead dog lying, whom nobody 
had thought it worth while to remove ; till we came to the Jews' Wail- 
ing Place, at the foot of the great wall of the temple inclosure. Near 
this point we turned aside to see what is called Robinson's Arch, be- 
cause the late Dr. Edward Robinson discovered it. This is believed by 
some to be one of the arches of the viaduct or bridge that Solomon, 
built from Mount Zion across the Valley of the Tyropceon to Mount 
Moriah, by which he went from his palace to the house of the Lord. The. 
remains of this arch lie 39 feet north of the southwest corner of the: 
wall, and its stones are very large — some of them from 19 to 25 feet 
long. In the wall itself are some immense stones ; one of them a little 
above the present surface of the ground but 75 feet above the founda- 
tion is 38 feet long and 7 feet wide. And the masonry is so fine, the 
blocks of stone so nicely fitted to one another without mortar, that a 
knife can hardly be thrust between them. 

A short distance north of Robinson's Arch is the Jews' Wailing Place, 
to which the Jews resort especially on Friday afternoons to lament the 
destruction of the Temple and of the city and the sufferings of their 
race. It is at the base of the lofty wall that formed part of the Temple 
inclosure, and they think this point is nearest to the spot where the 
Holy of Holies once stood. The lower courses of stone in this wall 
are certainly ancient — great blocks of limestone, some of them 15 feet 
long, with a rough surface and smooth bevelled edges. These stones 
the Jews kiss and wail over, and recite from their prayer books suppli- 
cations for favor to Zion. Sometimes they read aloud the 79th Psalm, 
beginning : " O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance ; 



126 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



thy holy temple have they defiled ; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps." 
And sometimes they chant this touching litany: 

" Because of the palace which is deserted — 

We sit alone and weep. 
Because of the Temple which is destroyed, 
Because of the walls which are broken down, 
Because of our greatness which is departed, 

Because of the precious stones of the Temple ground to powder, 
Because of our priests who have erred and gone astray, 
Because of our kings who have contemned God, — 
We sit alone and weep." 

This at least is what the books say that the Jews do at the Wailing 
Place. But although we and a number of other Christian visitors were 
there at the right time Friday afternoon, there was no company of 
wailing ones present. Only one solitary Jew stood with his face to the 
wall, reading aloud from his prayer book in a perfunctory and sing-song 
fashion. Perhaps the rain and the horrible walking had kept the 
mourners at home, but we were sadly disappointed in the meagreness 
of the performance. 

We returned through the Jewish quarter, visiting on the way the 
Polish synagogue, the largest synagogue in Jerusalem, though it is by 
no means a great building, and is quite plain. The interior arrange- 
ments are not at all like those of a church. In the centre is a raised 
platform with pillars at the corners, which represents the altar of burnt 
offering in the ancient temple, while another structure at the upper end 
of the building, a sort of facade with columns either side, represents 
the holy place, and has the seven-branched candlestick engraved on it, 
and seven lamps in front of it. Beyond this, in the extreme end of the 
building, are kept behind a curtain the manuscript-rolls of Scripture, 
from which they read at their services. This last receptacle represents 
the most holy place and the ark of the covenant. There is a large blue 
dome above the room with a gallery round its base, and there are plain 
wooden benches for the people to sit on, — the men on one side of the 
room, and the women on the other side. 

The number of Jews in Jerusalem and in Palestine has much in- 
creased by immigration of late years, yet has been exaggerated in con- 
temporary publications. Dr. Selah Merrill, United States Consul at 
Jerusalem, having investigated the matter has come to the conclusion 
that the number of Jews in the city cannot be over 25,000, and the 
number in Palestine not far from 42,000. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Round the Walls of Jerusalem. 

NE of the most instructive experiences of the sightseer at Jerusa- 
lem is gained by making the circuit of its walls on horseback. 
Fulfilling the exhortation of the Psalmist, " Walk about Zion, 
and go round about her ■ tell the towers thereof," * one is impressed not 
only with the city itself as "beautiful for situation," f but with various 
surrounding localities that are famous for their historical associations. 
We had been so unfortunate as to encounter severe storms of rain and 
snow during our stay in the city for three successive days. The day we 
visited the Mosque of Omar and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre it 
rained heavily and continuously ; the rain turning to snow at night, so 
that next day, March 23, we had ten inches of very wet snow on the 
ground, and were confined to our hotel all day ; as it was impossible to 
wade through the deep slush, and carriages could not be procured for 
any money, to take us even so far as to the gate of the city. Our cold, 
damp rooms with stone floors were comfortless as the cells of a monas- 
tery ; but in the sittingroom of the hotel we had a little stove with a fire 
of olive roots, where we managed to keep warm and whiled away the 
time as best we could. The third day we resumed sight-seeing in the 
slush and mud and rain ; and on the fourth day we mounted for the 
first time the horses that were to carry us through the Holy Land, and 
still in the rain started upon our ride around the walls of Jerusalem. 

From the spacious yard of the hotel we rode northward through the 
new part of the city to visit first the so-called " Tombs of the Kings," 
that are situated in a valley a half mile or more north of the Damascus 
Gate. This region is full of ancient sepulchres, and seems to have been 
the chief Jewish cemetery in the time of our Lord. A few yards east 
of the road we left our horses, and walked down a flight of broad steps 




*Ps. 48 : 12. 



t Ps. 48 : 2. 



128 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



cut in the rock into a large, square excavation, which was a sort of ante- 
chamber leading by a slope into a great court, hewn out of the rock and 
open to the sky, and about 90 feet square in size. This was perhaps 
thirty feet below the surface of the ground. The sides were perpendicu- 
lar and hewn smooth. Turning to the west we saw the portico of the 
tombs, once richly ornamented with pillars and sculptured in the Roman 
style ; a piece of the frieze over the tombs still remains in situ. This 
great court is supposed to have been a temple and meeting place of 
friends of the departed. 

The entrance to the tombs is on the south side of the portico ; and 
here we were greatly interested in observing before the entrance a huge 
round stone shaped much like a mill stone, which was rolled into a socket 
one side to give us access. We saw at a glance what was meant by the 
rolling away of the stone from the door of Christ's sepulchre, and how 
difficult if not impossible it would have been for the women to roll away 
that heavy stone.* Evidently this was such a rock tomb as was that of 
our Savior ; and the Roman ornamentation outside showed that these 
could not be the tombs of the old Jewish kings, who indeed were buried 
far distant, in the City of David, on Mt. Zion. Some have thought that 
this might have been an Herodian mausoleum ; but the present belief 
is that it was the tomb of a royal lady named Helena, who having em- 
braced Judaism in her own country, a province of Assyria, came to 
Jerusalem with her family A. D. 48, and was buried here according to 
Josephus. The door of the tomb was only three feet high, through 
which we crawled, and found ourselves in a large chamber excavated 
out of the native rock. Opening from this were two other chambers, 
and in the sides of each were low doors leading into the actual tombs, 
where the bodies probably reposed on shelves cut in the rock. One of 
the chambers had nine such doors leading out of it into tombs ; and 
through some of the doors we could see by the light of our candles 
three tombs cut, one behind the other ; so that a large number of bodies 
could be accommodated here. 

Coming out from this sepulchral place into the great court again, we 
climbed the stairs, and having remounted our horses rode down into the 
Valley of Jehoshaphat, along the course of the brook Kedron. This flows 
between the city of Jerusalem on the west, and the Mount of Olives on 
the east ; the latter rising nearly 300 feet higher than the city, and over 
400 feet above the level of the valley. The mountain has three peaks. 



* Mark 16 : 3, 4. 



THE TOWER OF DAVID. 



ROUND THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM. 



129 



The northern, called Scopus, was the headquarters of the Roman gen- 
eral, Titus, when he besieged the city, A. D. 70. The middle peak, 
the Mount of Olives so called, is traditionally the spot from which 
Christ ascended. And the southern peak is called the Mount of 
Offence, because here it is claimed Solomon built his high places for 
Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Moloch, the abominable idols whom his 
heathen wives worshipped. The mountain once no doubt covered 
with verdure looks desolate now. Titus, it is said, cut down all its 
trees in the siege, and there are but a few scattered olive-trees on it at 
present, and a few cultivated patches, and the churches and other build- 
ings that have been referred to. 

On its western slope, a little above the valley, is situated the tradi- 
tional Garden of Gethsemane, which we visited with painful interest. 
It is about one-third of an acre in size, an irregular square in shape, and 
is inclosed by a modern stucco-wall. Just outside the door, which is 
on the eastern side, is pointed out the spot where they say Peter, James, 
and John slept during our Savior's agony ; and near this the spot where 
Judas betrayed his Master with a kiss.* Within the garden are eight 
very old and gnarled olive trees, which the Franciscans who own the 
place claim to oe 2,000 years old, and to have been there when Jesus 
prayed in the garden. But this we cannot believe, because if Titus cut 
down the trees generally about Jerusalem, he would scarcely have 
spared these. Even the trees that sprung from the roots of those 
originally in the garden, were probably cut down for timber or fuel dur- 
ing later ages. The present trees, however, must be several hundred 
years old, if we judge from their appearance, and it may be that they 
stand on the ground of Gethsemane. They are divided off from each 
other by wooden picket fences, and there are flower beds between, and 
black cypresses and trim artificial walks. 

One walk runs along the four sides of the garden, within the high wall 
that incloses it, and^ following this we found on the east side a small 
structure in front of a little cave, which is called the Chapel of the 
Agony, because it purports to mark the spot where Jesus prayed. It 
was filled with blossoming geraniums and other flowers, and within was 
a marble bas-relief, representing Jesus in prayer and the angel who ap- 
peared to Him. Further along this walk we saw fourteen shrines with 
pictures of the fourteen Stations of the Cross, and it was touching to 
observe the affectionate devotion and earnestness of some Russian Pil- 

* Matt. 26:40, 49. 

9 



130 A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

grims, both men and women, clad in sheepskins with the fleece turned 
inside, who kissed the gratings over these pictures and crossed them- 
selves, and uttered prayers with moistened eyes. One could not doubt 
their zeal and faith, that had brought them perhaps a thousand miles 
travelled on foot, and as much further by water, to visit these sacred 
places. These poor superstitious peasants, I thought, are thus affected 
because they believe they are standing on holy ground. But I, who 
have little confidence in tradition, who mentally challenge every identi- 
fication of site, — I am not so affected. These olive trees are to me no 
more than other olive trees, and Christ seems not so near in these 
garish surroundings as in the still hour of spiritual worship. I could not 
help uttering these sentiments to my companions, as we stood there, 
and shocked one of. them by my lack of responsiveness to the scene. 
But I told him that my faith was expressed in that sweet hymn of 
Cowper's : 

"Jesus, where'er Thy people meet. 

There they behold Thy mercy-seat; 
Where'er they seek Thee, Thou art found; 

And every place is hallowed ground. 

For Thou, within no walls confined, 

Inhabitest the humble mind; 
Such ever bring Thee where they come, 

And going, take Thee to their home." 

We left the Franciscan Gethsemane, and only glancing as we passed 
at the rival Gethsemane, which the Greeks have arranged upon another 
slope, we walked a short distance north to the so-called Tomb of the 
Virgin. Flights of steps lead down to an open space in front of the 
chapel's entrance ; then one descends 47 marble steps further to the 
floor of the chapel, which seems to be a natural cave enlarged and 
adorned with churchly pillars, arches, and vaulted roof — the work of the 
Crusaders in the 12th century. On one side, as we went down the 
stairs were pointed out to us the tombs of Joachim and Anne, the par- 
ents of the Virgin, and on the other side the tomb of Joseph her hus- 
band. Her own tomb was in the chapel below, lighted by numerous 
lamps, where a service was being chanted by priests and their assistants, 
in a high nasal tone. Tradition makes this the spot where the Apostles, 
miraculously gathered from various parts of the world upon Mary's 
death, buried her body ; but says that her body was directly raised by 
her Son to be with Him in glory ; to that the Apostles coming to pray 



ROUND THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM. 131 

at her tomb found it empty of its occupant and filled with flowers. This 
is called the Assumption of the Virgin. In Italy one sees many beauti- 
ful paintings, representing the scene of the Assumption ; for this has 
been one of the favorite subjects of Roman Catholic art. 

From the Tomb of the Virgin we rode down the narrow valley south- 
ward, along the foot of Olivet ; whose whole side here is covered with 
Jewish tombs from the bed of Kedron to the top of the mountain. 
These are marked by plain flat stones. But in striking contrast to them 
are four large monuments that have been cut out of the native rock. 
The most stately of these is called the Tomb of Absalom, 47 feet high 
and 20 feet square, ornamented with Ionic pillars, over which are a 
Doric architrave and frieze, and a dome shaped like a water-caraffe. 
These features of course show that the present monument could not 
date back to Absalom's day ; yet it may be that it stands upon the site, 
not of his grave, but of the pillar that he in his lifetime reared for him- 
self, in the king's dale, to keep his name in remembrance.* To this 
day children still throw stones at the monument, and curse the memory 
of Absalom. Near it are the reputed tombs of Jehoshaphat, of St. 
James, and of the prophet Zechariah, who was stoned by order of King 
Joash,| the latter a miniature temple of imposing appearance. Passing 
these we rode by the village of Silwam, the ancient Siloam, built above 
us on the southern summit of the Mount of Olives or the Hill of Offence. 
The houses of the village are mostly hovels ; many of the people live in 
caves and old tombs, and the place is difficult of access, both from 
above and from below. 

Beyond this we came to the Fountain of the Virgin, where, it is said, 
Mary washed the Holy Child's clothing, and where, when falsely ac- 
cused, she drank of the waters and established her innocence. There 
is a connection under the rock a third of a mile long between this 
Fountain and the Pool of Siloam, that gushes from the rock at the foot 
of the hill Ophel, and a connection with another basin that was once 
included within the walls of Jerusalem. These tunnels must have been 
excavated at a very early date, as they are irregular and winding, and 
they were invaluable in furnishing water supply to the city. A nimble 
Arab can readily walk or crawl through the wet tunnel, from the Foun- 
tain of the Virgin to the Pool of Siloam, and travellers sometimes do 
so, but we preferred to ride down to the Pool of Siloam. It was to this 
Pool that our Savior sent the blind man % to wash and be healed. There 



*II Sam. 18 : 17, 18. 



f II Chron. 24 : 20, 21. 



J John 9:7. 



132 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



was an upper and a lower Pool of Siloam in Bible times, and we saw 
what we took to be the lower one alongside the road, now only a cess- 
pool, while the other lay above, surrounded by the ruins of an old 
church once built there. 

The next point of interest we reached was the Well of Enrogel, a 
little south of the point where the Valley of Hinnom connects with the 
Valley of Jehoshaphat. The Arabs call it Job's Well, though of course 
Job had nothing to do with it. The well is associated with the tragic 
histories both of Absalom and Adonijah. By it staid Jonathan and 
Ahimaaz, the messengers by whom Hushai was to send tidings to the 
fugitive King David of what Absalom proposed to do ; and a woman 
carried to them Hushai's dispatches.* Near this well also, Adonijah 
slew his sheep and oxen, and fed the people who conspired with him to 
make him king in David's old age ; a feast to which he invited all the 
king's sons, but Solomon; but in which he was interrupted by the news 
that David had made Solomon king, and all his guests abandoned him.f 
The well is 125 feet deep, and is much resorted to from Jerusalem and 
from the village of Siloam. 

From Enrogel we retraced our steps a little way and turned westward 
up the Valley of Hinnom, once the border between Judah and Benja- 
min, and famous as the locality where the idolatrous Jews offered their 
children in sacrifice to Moloch.^ It is another deep ravine like that of 
Kedron, and separates Mount Zion on the north from the Hill of Evil 
Counsel on the south. The latter gets its name from a tradition that 
the house of Caiaphas, where the death of our Savior was plotted, stood 
there. The rocky sides of this valley also are full of ancient tombs. A 
little further up the valley on the south side is the traditional site of 
Aceldama, or the field of blood, where was "the Potter's Field," bought 
to bury strangers in, with the thirty pieces of silver for which Judas be- 
trayed our Lord, and which in remorse he returned. § Now ail this Valley 
of Hinnom is filled with fruit trees and cultivated fields, and is a quiet, 
peaceful spot ; through which we paced leisurely till we passed into the 
Valley of Gihon, that turns northward inclosing Jerusalem on the west. 
Here we came to the lower pool of Gihon, where Solomon was anointed 
king at the very time when Adonijah and his friends were feasting 
merrily by the W ell of Enrogel and anticipating the success of their 
conspiracy. || It is a large reservoir between five and six hundred feet 

* 2 Sam. 17:17. fl Kings t : 9, 10, 49. J II Chron. 28 : 3. 

§ Matt. 27: 3-8. || I Kings 1 : 38, 39. 



ROUND THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM. 133 

long and over two hundred feet wide, with a depth of thirty-five or forty 
feet ; but there was little water in it when we saw it, and much of the 
year there is none. It is believed to date from the time of King Heze- 
kiah, and perhaps to have conveyed water to irrigate the gardens lower 
down the valley. 

At this point the bridle path that we had followed passed into the 
fine carriage road that extends from the Jaffa Gate to Bethlehem ; and 
we soon reached the gate that was becoming so familiar to us. To 
complete the circuit of the walls we had only to ride around to the 
Damascus Gate on the north side of the city, near which we had passed 
down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Two more interesting localities 
were to be visited here. Going a little way east of the Damascus Gate 
we found under the city wall a cave in the native rock on which the 
wall is built. This is the entrance to Solomon's Quarries so-called. We 
lighted each one a candle, and penetrating the low mouth of the cave, 
we found ourselves in a wide and high excavation, a grand gallery that 
conducted us a long way and from time to time opened out into vast 
subterranean chambers. We could see on the walls the marks of 
ancient workmen's tools, and evidence that great blocks of the soft lime- 
stone had been cut out and dressed here, before they were removed 
for building purposes. The stone is white and easily worked when 
freshly cut, but hardens and darkens with exposure to the air. We 
walked on till we were tired, and still the vast quarries opened before 
us. They are said to extend to Mount Moriah and indeed under 
three-quarters of Jerusalem ; and it is probable that they furnished stone 
not only for Solomon's splendid edifices and massive walls, but for the 
building operations of all the kings who succeeded him. The air was 
very warm within, nearly 70 degrees, we judged; in marked contrast to 
the raw, chilly air outside, where it was still raining with spiteful vigor. 

But notwithstanding the rain, when we came out from the quarries 
some of us walked up to the neighboring hill, north of the Damascus Gate, 
which, as has been stated, many modern scholars believe to be the true 
Calvary, rather than that inclosed within the Church of the Holy Sepul- 
chre. This spot, according to Rabbinical tradition, was once " the 
House of Stoning," i. e., the place of public execution under the Jewish 
law. And near it, according to Christian tradition, Stephen the first 
martyr was stoned ; a punishment that would naturally have been 
inflicted at the usual place of execution. Besides this, the name Gol- 



134 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



gotha or " Place of a Skull " might have referred to the shape of the 
ground, rather than to the fact that it was the spot where the death- 
penalty was inflicted ; and if so, this dome-shaped hill from its resem- 
blance to a skull fulfills the conditions. Moreover, this hill was cer- 
tainly outside the walls of the city in Christ's time as now ; and it was 
close by the great thoroughfare leading north, so that those passing by 
would see there the Crucified One, as the gospels intimate was the case.* 
Add to these considerations, that the fact that Joseph of Arimathaea 
buried Christ's body in his own tomb, in a garden outside the city, 
requires that Calvary should be found near the great Jewish cemetery 
in Christ's time, and that this hill was certainly near such cemetery, as 
is shown by the numerous tombs about it; and the probabilities that 
this was the true Calvary are very great. So careful a scholar as the 
late lamented Dr. Philip Schaff believed this to be the place where 
Christ was crucified. 

I approached the hill therefore with profound interest. At its western 
base we were shown an ancient rock-tomb, evidently dating back to the 
Roman period, that some believe to have been our Savior's tomb. We 
were not able to gain entrance to it ; but the particular descriptions that 
have been given of it indicate that it was excavated from the native rock 
at considerable expense, and must have belonged to a rich man. We 
climbed the hill, bare of buildings or trees, partly covered now with 
Mohammedan graves, and I gathered from the top some of those blood- 
red anemones that grow luxuriantly there. The stillness of the scene, 
the wildness of nature about me, and the presence of the memorials of 
death, brought far more of solemnity to my mind than did the gorgeous 
surroundings and the monkish inventions that in the Church of the Holy 
Sepulchre cluster about the traditional site of Calvary. Here, I thought, 
it might well be that our Savior died ; the guilty city outspread before 
Him, the magnificent walls and pinnacles of the Temple that were wont 
to glitter in the afternoon sun now shrouded in that strange darkness 
that was over the landscape, proud Mt. Zion with its palaces grown dim 
and shadowy, but all heaven above filled with radiant angels watching 
with intensest sympathy and loving adoration that mysterious trans- 
action — 

"When God, the Mighty Maker, died 
For man, the creature's, sin." 



* Matt. 27 : 39 and John 19 : 20. 



ROUND THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM. 



i35 



And with hushed and reverent feeling I drew away from the spot ; 
thankful that I could say with an appropriating faith, He "loved me, 
and gave Himself for me." 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Bethlehem. 

MALL and insignificant in itself, as the city of Bethlehem seems 
always to have been, by its association with our Savior 
it has become invested with transcendent importance and 
interest to the Christian world. Its earlier fame as the birthplace 
of King David has been quite eclipsed by its fame as the birthplace 
of David's greater son. That it should enjoy this honor was pre- 
dicted by Micah, some 700 years before the event took place ; 
" But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thou- 
sands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to 
be ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from ever- 
lasting." * This prophecy was so well understood among the Jews, that 
when upon the arrival of the Wise Men in Jerusalem, King Herod 
assembled the chief priests and scribes, and demanded of them where 
Christ should be born, they replied without hesitation, " In Bethlehem 
of Judaea." And in proof of their assertion they quoted this language 
of Micah. f Hence it was that the Evangelist Luke so particularly 
related the circumstances that led to our Savior's birth in Bethlehem, 
that there might be no doubt He fulfilled the prophecy and was the 
destined Ruler. The Christ might indeed grow up in Galilee and even 
in Nazareth, but He mast be born in Bethlehem. 

To this town accordingly turn the thoughts of countless Christians as 
to one of the sacred spots of earth that they would fain visit ; and cer- 
tainly nobody who goes to Jerusalem would fail to make the short jour- 
ney of six miles from that city to see the place of our Savior's nativity. 
It was with eager anticipation that we vaulted upon our horses, and 
clattered down the street to the Jaffa Gate with this purpose in mind. 
The rain had now ceased, and the sun shone out at intervals, making 

*Mic. 5:2. t Matt. 2 : 4-6. 



BETHLEHEM. 



137 



our ride a pleasant one. Our road below the Jaffa Gate crossed the 
Valley of Gihon, over the lower dam of the lower Pool of Gihon; as the 
aqueduct from Solomon's Pools, near Bethlehem, crosses the valley 
over the upper dam of this same Pool, once conveying its pure waters 
into the cisterns on Mount Moriah. A fine carriage road has been con- 
structed all the way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, — one of the very 
few carriage roads in Palestine, — so that we ascended from the Valley 
by a long easy grade on the south-west side. 

On our left hand we passed the traditional tree on which Judas hung 
himself, (believe it who can), and then on the right hand the buildings 
of the German Colony clustering about the station of the railroad by 
which we came from Jaffa. Already a considerable settlement has 
sprung up in this locality. Then we rode nearly two miles across the 
sloping plains of Rephaim, which have witnessed many a hotly fought 
battle between the Israelites and their heathen foes. Here it was that 
the Philistines came up to seek David when they learned that he had 
been anointed king over Israel, and spread themselves in the valley to 
fight him ; and here, by the help of the Lord, he twice defeated them 
with great slaughter.* There is now no grove of mulberry trees there 
as in David's time, whose rustling leaves told him that the Lord had 
gone forth before him to smite the host of the Philistines ; but we saw 
a peaceful pastoral scene of growing grain fields and pasturing flocks 
of sheep. 

Before reaching the summit of the long, gradual rise in the ground, 
we came to the " Well of the Star," where tradition says that the Wise 
Men, going from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, and stopping to draw water, 
caught sight again of the Star that had drawn them from their Eastern 
homes, and it conducted them to the place where the child Jesus was.f 
On the top of the hill, to the left, there is a Greek Convent called Mar 
Elias, or the Convent of Elijah, because it is claimed that here Elijah 
rested in his flight from Jezebel.^ Just across the road from the 
building is a large smooth rock, having in it a depression a little larger 
than a man's body. On this rock the Greek monks say that Elijah 
slept one night as he fled through Judah to Horeb, the mount of God, 
and that he left in the stone the mark of his body. So they built the 
monastery opposite. Unfortunately, however, for belief in the legend 
it is known that the original building was erected by a Bishop Elias, at 



* 2 Sam. 5:17-25. 



t Matt. 2:9. 



1 1 Kings 19:2, 3. 



138 A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

an early period, for whom the monastery was named ; so that the story 
told now is uncommonly flimsy. 

From this ridge of Mar Elias we had a fine view of Bethlehem, built 
on a hill in the distance, and surrounded by terraced vineyards and 
olive and fig groves, and also of the outlying villages ; and far in the 
south we saw a truncated mountain — sometimes called the Frank 
Mountain, because held as a fortified place by the Crusaders many 
years, and sometimes called the Herodian Mountain, because they say 
that King Herod's body was brought from Jericho and buried there. 
On the south side of this mountain is the famous cave Adullam, where 
David hid from King Saul, and whither resorted to him all his kinsmen 
and every one that was in debt or discontented, till his retainers num- 
bered 400 men.* Turning our horses around, we had a splendid view 
in the opposite direction, looking towards Jerusalem and the mountains 
about it as far as Neby Samwil, on the northern horizon. This is the 
first glimpse one gets of Jerusalem in coming from the south, and here 
on this ridge Abraham journeying sadly from Beersheba must first have 
sighted Mount Moriah, on which he was to offer up by divine com- 
mand his only and beloved son, Isaac, f 

Descending the hill we passed on the right the Hospital of the 
Knights of St. John, called Tantur, and presently we reached the re- 
puted Tomb of Rachel — the beautiful woman who inspired the selfish 
and scheming Jacob with a flame of undying love. Concerning her 
death the Scripture says : "And they journeyed from Bethel ; and there 
was but a little way to come to Ephrath ; and Rachel travailed, and she 
had hard labor. * * * And Rachel died, and was buried in the 
way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem." { Most touchingly did Jacob, 
in his old age, tell the story over again to Rachel's son, Joseph ; § 
his early love undimned, though full forty years had passed since he 
lost her. The Scripture says : "And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave ; 
that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day." || Doubtless the 
identity of the spot was preserved down to the time of Matthew the 
evangelist ; who quotes from Jeremiah the beautiful figure of speech 
representing Rachel as weeping for her slaughtered descendants, and 
applies it to the slaughter of the Innocents in Bethiehem.1T Nor is there 
any reason to doubt the identity of the spot now known as Rachel's 
Tomb. Jews, Mohammedans and Christians agree upon it. The pres- 



* 1 Sam. 22:1, 2. 
I Gen. 48:7. 



t Gen. 22:2, 4. 
I Gen. 35:20. 



% Gen. 35:16, 19. 
tfMatt. 2:17, iS. 



BETHLEHEM. 



139 



ent building dates back only to the middle ages, and appears to be a Mo- 
hammedan structure, consisting of four square stone walls, 23 feet long 
and 20 feet high, surmounted by a dome about ten feet high, and hav- 
ing a flat-roofed modern annex about thirteen feet high, which forms a 
covered court where the Mohammedans pray, for it is one of their sac- 
red places. 

At Rachel's Tomb a road turns off to the right, leading to Solomon's 
Pools, a half hour distant. These are three immense reservoirs of un- 
douted antiquity, and may, very likely, have been Solomon's work ; 
perhaps they are referred to in Eccl. 2:6. The carriage road keeps on 
directly to Bethlehem, which is reached in about fifteen minutes, and 
one climbs the hill on which the square, flat-roofed houses of yellowish- 
white limestone are compactly built. The town once fortified is now 
without walls, but its situation on a ridge has held it within its ancient 
limits. On its northern edge we visited the celebrated Well of Bethle- 
hem, for whose water David longed when he was in a stronghold, and 
the garrison of the Philistines was in Bethlehem, and to gratify his wish 
three of his mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and 
drew water out of the well and brought it to David.* A fine illustra- 
tion this of the devotion of his men to him, that they would lovingly 
risk their lives to indulge his lightest whim. No wonder that they were 
invincible in war. 

From the Well we rode through the narrow, filthy streets, full of 
mounds and gullies, and of garbage that the scavenger dogs had not 
eaten, — streets almost impassable to carriages, — and observed the 
workmen in their little shops making carved rosaries of date-stones or 
olive wood, and all sorts of souvenirs from the asphalt of the Dead Sea, 
and from mother-of-pearl shell, for sale to tourists. This manufactur- 
ing industry is the main support of the town of five or six thousand in- 
habitants, mostly Christians. The Bethlehem wine, too, is of consider- 
able reputation in the country, and enjoys an extensive sale, though it 
does not please the Occidental taste. The Bethlehemites themselves ap- 
pear to be generally prosperous ; fewer beggars are seen here than in 
some other towns of the Holy Land, and the rivalry between the dif- 
ferent Christian sects is not so bitter as in Jerusalem. 

Of course the chief point of interest in the town is the Church of the 
Nativity, — a confused pile of stone buildings that look like a fortress, 
and include besides the various chapels the Latin, Greek, and Arme- 

*2 Sam. 23:13-17. 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



nian Convents. The original church was built by Helena, the mother 
of the Emperor Constantine. 327 A. D.. on the site of the khan or inn 
where Christ is believed to have been born. Partly destroyed by the 
Moslems, and restored by the Crusaders, it is the most venerable 
church in Palestine, perhaps in the world. The arched gateway into 
the church was long ago filled up with square stones to resist attack, 
and we entered through a low door, only four feet high, into the nave 
of the church, called the chapel of St. Helena, and belonging to the Arme- 
nians. The roof is supported by 44 marble pillars, said to have been 
taken from the temple on Mount Moriah. and was once richly painted 
and gilded, and the walls were covered with mosaics that have disap- 
peared. A high partition has been erected across the nave and aisles, 
shutting them off from the choir and transepts, which are made into three 
chapels ; the whole building being in the shape of a Latin cross. The 
central chapel, i. e. the choir, belongs to the Greeks, and is handsomely 
adorned. The right transept belongs to the Latins, and the left to the 
Armenians ; and these are quite plain. 

By a flight of steps from the Greek chapel, we descended to the 
Grotto of the Nativity, a natural cave now paved and walled with mar- 
ble, hung with draperies and rude pictures of the infancy and childhood 
of Jesus, and lighted by many lamps hanging from the ceiling. It is 
about 40 feet long by 16 wide and 10 feet high. At the further end ot 
the chapel under the altar, which is a projecting shelf of marble, is a 
silver star in the floor, bearing the inscription in Latin : " Here Jesus 
Christ was born of the Virgin Mary." In the centre of the star is seen 
a portion of the native rock ; above it sixteen gold and silver lamps are 
kept burning day and night. Pilgrims kneel down and kiss this silver 
star, and many are affected to tears. In a low recess on the right, 
three or four steps down, is shown the spot where the manger stood, in 
which our Savior was cradled. The walls are cased with marble, but 
around the base of the recess the native rock is exposed to view. The 
wooden manger said to have been taken hence is in the church of 
Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. That story, of course, is quite myth- 
ical, but the tradition which makes this cave our Lord's birth place 
runs back to the second century, and is variously confirmed, and is re- 
garded by the best authorities as probably true. Caves were often used 
in those days as adjuncts of the houses for store rooms, or work shops, 
or stables, and it is not unlikely that the stable to which our Lord's 



BETHLEHEM. 



141 



parents resorted, " because there was no room for them in the inn," * 
was such a cave as this. 

Two Turkish soldiers stood on guard with swords and muskets in 
this sacred place to keep the peace between the rival Christian sects, — 
just as in the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. We left them 
looking grim and unsympathetic, and passed by a long subterranean 
passage to other little chambers cut in the native rock. We came to an 
altar dedicated to Joseph, said to be the place where the angel com- 
manded Joseph to flee into Egypt. Next, to the Altar of the Innocents, 
asserted to be over a pit into which the little children murdered by 
Herod were cast. Then to the tomb of Eustochium, a pupil of St. 
Jerome, and to the chapel and tomb of St. Paula and her daughter, 
who took care of St. Jerome, and finally to the chapel and tomb of St. 
Jerome himself, who lived here for thirty years, close to the birth place 
of his Savior, praying, fasting, studying, and preparing his famous Latin 
Version of the Scriptures, known as the Vulgate. Then we ascended 
to the large new chapel of St. Catherine, and passed out of the building. 

Following a dirty street south of the Convents, we visited the chapel 
ten feet underground, called the Milk Grotto. The legend is that a 
drop of the Virgin Mary's milk fell on the floor of the cave, and ever 
since the rock has had the power of increasing the milk of women who 
visit the place. Even those who cannot go there in person may obtain 
the same benefit by drinking in water the pulverized stone, and little 
round cakes made of its dust are sold at a low price by attendants in 
the Grotto. There were many young women there on their knees 
praying to the Virgin, doubtless with entire faith in the legend. 

Going still further east upon this street, or path, we came out upon 
a side hill, from which we saw below us the village of Beit Sahur. where, 
it is said, the Shepherds, mentioned in Luke, second chapter, lived. Be- 
yond the village was an inclosed olive orchard, claimed to mark the 
spot where they were watching their flocks by night, when they received 
the annunciation of our Savior's birth, and heard the glorious overture 
of the angels. It is even now a sweet landscape, backed by the lofty 
mountains of Gilead and Moab on the east, with the Herodium or 
Frank Mountain on the south ; a fit place for the utterance of angelic 
praises on that Holy Night, when heaven and earth were brought into 
such wondrous relations of sympathy. Surely those simple shepherds, 
to whom was vouchsafed so high a privilege, must ever after have cher- 



* Luke 2:7, 



142 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



ished a profound impression of the unseen and spiritual, that raised 
their lives above their previous commonplace level. 

To the north of the shepherds' pastures extended, it is supposed, the 
fields of Boaz, where the lovely Ruth gleaned in the barley harvest, and 
won the gentle, noble heart of her rich kinsman. No more beauti- 
ful idyl was ever written than the book of Ruth, and from no 
book of the Old Testament do we gain a better insight into the life and 
manners and character of the Hebrew people of those early days. 
Standing on the hill side and looking over those verdant slopes, one 
could easily see in imagination the scene painted by the inspired writer — 
the fields of golden grain, the sturdy reapers at work, or resting in the 
heat of the day, and partaking of the frugal lunch of parched corn ; the 
stately but gracious Boaz exchanging courtesies with his men, and the 
charming Ruth industriously gathering the generous portion left her, re- 
spected and admired in her virtuous poverty. The whole region, in- 
closed by low hills and lighted up by the afternoon sun, was pleasing 
and picturesque, and seemed still to whisper of the love that had glori- 
fied it — love human, but most of all love divine. For the story of love 
is one of eternal freshness and interest. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Mount of Olives, Bethany and Jericho. 

OW, as in the days of the solitary traveller of Christ's parable, 
whom the Good Samaritan befriended, a journey from Jerusa- 
lem to Jericho involves a long descent. For Jerusalem is built, 
as we have said, upon the mountain ridge that runs north and south 
through Palestine, and forms the backbone of the country, some 2,500 
feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea. While Jericho lies in 
the plain of the Jordan, but a few miles above the point where the river 
flows into the Dead Sea, and the latter is 1,312 feet below the level 
of the Mediterranean. Hence we " went down from Jerusalem to 
Jericho," * nearly 3,800 feet, in a distance of about 18 miles. Though 
first we had to climb the Mount of Olives, which is nearly 300 feet 
higher than Jerusalem, and affords the best point of observation from 
which to view the city and the surrounding country. 

We constituted a party of thirty-three tourists, besides our accomp- 
lished guide, Dr. Crunden, and two Syrian dragomen, — the slender, 
energetic Abdallah, and the tall and trusty Salah, — and a guard of two 
Bedouins, armed with long muskets, who were furnished on our payment 
of a fee by the Sheikh of the Jordan, to protect us by the way. For the 
road is as much infested by robbers now as when the man described in 
the parable " fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and 
wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead." * The Bedouins 
are the robbers, and in the lonely ravines that must be traversed they 
do not hesitate to attack small parties as well as individuals. So it is 
the safe way and the custom of tourists, to buy off these fellows by pay- 
ing for their escort and protection — a species of blackmail that is not 
confined to the semi-barbarous Turkish Empire, but seems to flourish 
mutatis mutandis in our own boasted metropolis. 



*Luke 10:30. 



fLuke 10:30. 



i'44 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



It was in the midst of a pouring rain that we rode our horses out from 
the yard of the Hotel Jerusalem, and took the street leading to the city ; 
then turning to our left went along under the wall and past the Damas- 
cus Gate and Solomon's quarries and the Modern Calvary, down into 
the Valley of the Kedron, and up the slope of Olivet to the Garden of 
Gethsemane. Here our party divided, some going by the easy carriage 
road skirting the mount to Bethany, and others of us climbing by a steep 
path directly up the Mount of Olives to get the view of Jerusalem from 
the top. Our road was stony and slippery, as well as steep, but our 
horses were trained to climb anywhere like goats, as we afterwards 
learned when they took us over vastly worse mountain trails, and they 
carried us up in safety. Every step here was historic ground. Over 
"this very path, probably, walked King David in his flight from his rebel- 
lious son, Absalom ; for the historian says, " David went up by the 
ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head 
covered, and he went barefoot, and all the people that was with him 
covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went 
up." * Over this path frequently passed our Savior between Jerusalem 
and Bethany, where He visited Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. And from 
the summit of this hill, perhaps from the spot where we stopped to take 
a last view of Jerusalem, our Savior when He made His triumphant 
progress from Bethany, escorted by multitudes, " beheld the city and 
wept over it." f 

As we lingered there we could imagine how splendid and imposing 
must have appeared from this hill, in the days of Christ, the Temple 
and its marble courts, and the palaces on Mount Zion, and the solid walls 
and lofty towers that constituted the defences of the city. How un- 
likely to be fulfilled may have seemed to some of His hearers the doom 
He pronounced upon the guilty capital ; " Thine enemies shall lay thee 
even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not 
leave in thee one stone upon another ; because thou knewest not the 
time of thy visitation.''^ Yet we had seen for ourselves how literally 
this prediction had been accomplished. The city we gazed at was an 
entirely different one from that which our Savior saw ; was every way 
inferior ; a wretched, filthy place, as we had found ; yet from this dis- 
tance and this height it looked large and strong and venerable, even 
impressive. While the handsome Mosque of Omar with its spacious 
area, the slender minarets shooting up amid the low domes and flat 



*II Sam. 15: 30. 



f L,uke 19 : 41. 



X Luke 19 : 44. 



MOUNT OF OLIVES, BETHANY AND JERICHO. 145 



roofs of the houses, the great dome of the Church of the Holy Sepul- 
chre, and the proud towers of the citadel, offered some elements of 
beauty that were added to by the setting of green hills about the city. 

The middle summit of the Mount of Olives is covered with buildings ; 
among which was pointed out to us the Church of the Ascension, origi- 
nally built by St. Helena on what was supposed to be the place from 
which Christ ascended. But this tradition of course contradicts the 
narrative of Luke, who expressly says that He led His disciples " out 
as far as to Bethany" — which is over a mile further east — and there " it 
came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them and 
carried up into heaven." * One church has succeeded another upon 
this traditional site; while the Mohammedans have built a mosque here, 
and claim that its dome is over the exact spot from which Jesus 
ascended; in proof of which they show a mark in the rock, which they 
say is the footprint of Jesus. Not far away has been erected a church 
upon the locality where, it is asserted, the Master taught His disciples 
the Lord's Prayer. And near this is a chapel commemorating the 
composition of the Apostles' Creed, according to the old tradition, that 
the twelve Apostles met and formulated it by each one offering an 
article ; a tradition that has long since been exploded, as it is known 
that this Creed gradually grew out of the life of the church ages after 
the Apostles. 

We descended the Mount of Olives on the southeastern side, by a 
narrow and slippery track, and passed on towards Bethany. On the 
way was pointed out to us the ground where it is supposed stood the 
village, to which Jesus sent two of His disciples to find the ass and her 
colt ' 5 tied by the door without in a place where two ways met " — with 
orders to unloose them and bring them to Him for His last and trium- 
phant entry into Jerusalem in the declared character of the Christ. f 
Just outside of Bethany, on the side toward Jerusalem, are several rock 
tombs ; some one of which is much more likely to have been the tomb 
of Lazarus than is the underground cellar in the village, reached by 26 
steps from the street, that is reputed to have been the sepulchre from 
which Lazarus was raised by our Savior. J Yet a church was at an early 
date built over the latter excavation, in memory of what was perhaps 
the greatest of all our Lord's miracles. We saw also the ruins of a 
church built by the Christian emperor Justinian and destroyed by the 
Saracens upon the supposed site of the house of Simon the Leper ; § 

* Luke 24 : 50, 51. f Markn: 1-10. % John n : 43, 44. 5 Mark 14 : 3. 
10 



146 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



and adjoining this was indicated to us the site of the house of Martha 
and Mary.* Of course no value is to be put upon these particular 
identifications ; but so sweet and precious are the associations of Beth- 
any with our Savior, as the place where He displayed so much of the 
human side of His character, where He found a home and realized an 
ideal friendship with Lazarus and Martha and Mary, that this village is 
exceedingly interesting. Though it is now a dirty and forlorn hamlet 
of mud hovels, inhabited by about 300 Mohammedans, whose scantily 
clad children begged for backsheesh as we rode through, we thought of 
the deathless love that once glorified this locality, and we mused in 
silence. 

Our rude path here struck into the carriage road, by which the other 
members of our party had come from Gethsemane, and we rejoined 
them. The road is wide and smooth and well constructed ; a recent 
improvement that is said to have resulted from an accident which befell 
a Wallachian Princess, who to save poor pilgrims from stumbling and 
falling in the rough path formerly used, gave a large sum of money to 
make this new thoroughfare. It constantly descended, winding among 
the bare and desolate hills, and led us into a deep valley, where there is 
a well with a small basin — the only one on the way between Bethany 
and the Jordan plain. This is believed to be " the waters of Enshe- 
mesh," mentioned in the book of Joshua as one of the boundaries of 
Judah.j Beyond this point we rode some distance through a wilder- 
ness of hills covered with bushes and loose stones, where there was no 
human habitation in sight, till about noon we came to the new khan, 
to which the Good Samaritan carried the wounded traveller.^ But let 
none fancy this to be anything like a hotel or inn with us. It is only 
an open court yard inclosed by a high stone wall, within which travellers 
can take their horses, mules, or camels, unload and rest and feed them, 
and eat their own provisions in a place where they are safe from sudden 
attack. As may be supposed, the place was very filthy ; and we were 
glad to find our lunch tent pitched outside in a clean spot, where we 
dismounted, rather stiff and sore from our ride, left our horses to the 
grooms or muleteers in attendance, and threw ourselves down upon the 
piece of carpet spread under the tent to enjoy the excellent luncheon, 
to which our appetites did full justice. 

We stopped here an hour, and at one o'clock were in the saddle 
again, still descending amid bare and stony hills, though finding every- 



*John 11 : 1. 



f Josh. 15 : 7. 



% Luke 10 : 34. 



MOUNT OF OLIVES, BETHANY AND JERICHO. 



i47 



where beautiful wild flowers growing by the wayside — red and yellow 
and purple and white — among them flowers closely resembling our own 
daisies. The road from the khan onward to Jericho was still in process 
of construction ; much of it was only a bed of stones as yet uncovered 
with crushed stone and earth, but it will be a good road when com- 
pleted. We came to a point where we turned off from the road to our 
left and climbed a little hill, from which we looked down into the deep 
canyon of a brook, then a foaming torrent on account of recent heavy 
rains and melting snow, though in summer the channel is quite dry. 
This has been identified with the brook Cherith, where the prophet 
Elijah staid at God's command during the first part of the three years and 
a half drought in Israel, and where the ravens brought him bread and 
flesh both morning and evening.* Of course the identification is dis- 
puted ; some scholars believe that the brook Cherith was on the east 
side of the Jordan and further north, opposite Samaria. But the Greek 
Christians have built a monastery in honor of Elijah in this narrow gorge 
at a most romantic point, and at a great expense they have cut in the 
side of the precipitous bank a road leading to their monastery from the 
plain of the Jordan. The depth from the hill on which we stood to the 
brook below was about 2000 feet • sharp rough peaks rose on either side 
in wildest shapes — treeless, rocky, seamed by torrent beds ■ and I 
thought that I had seen nothing so grand since I travelled through the 
Royal Gorge and the Black River Canyon of Colorado. 

We rode on our way, and soon caught a glimpse through the hills of 
the modern town of Jericho or Riha, as it is called, in the distance ; 
and then a bit of the Dead Sea to the south came into view, and part 
of the plain of Jordan. A little further on we could see far away a 
line of verdure marking the course of the brook Jabbok east of the 
Jordan — the stream upon whose banks Jacob wrestled that memorable 
night with the Celestial Stranger, f While on our left hand we saw a 
jagged peak of Quarantania, the traditional mountain of our Savior's 
temptation. Still we followed the course of the brook Cherith but 
along the top of the canyon, and glorious indeed were the changing 
scenes it presented to us. At length we began to descend more rapidly, 
we took our last turn among the mountains, and as we escaped from 
the pass a magnificent view burst upon us. At our feet stretched a 
great plain apparently level, treeless, barren and brown ; but on the 
further or eastern side of it a broad ribbon of luxuriant green marked 

* 1 Kings 17 : 1-6. f Gen. 32:24. 



148 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



the course of the river Jordan where it flows amid willows, oleanders, 
and reeds. To the south gleamed in the afternoon sun, which was now 
shining between the clouds, the north end of the Dead Sea. On both 
sides of us and behind us a tumbled sea of mountains, the so-called hill 
country of Judah and Benjamin. And directly in front of us east of 
the plain the lofty mountains of Moab and Gilead rising like a great 
wall against the sky; among the former the highest peak Mount Nebo 
associated with the death of Moses the grand Hebrew leader. To our 
left on the west side of the plain was the Valley of Achor, where Achan 
the troubler of Israel was stoned ; and beyond it the site of the ancient 
Jericho. While between this and the Jordan lay the village of Riha or 
modern Jericho, and just this side of it our camp of white tents near 
the spot where the aqueduct that conveys water to the village 
crosses the brook Cherith. It was a beautiful landscape, and looking 
at it I did not wonder that Lot when he separated from Abraham 
" chose him all the plain of Jordan," which at that time " was well 
watered everywhere even as the garden of the Lord." * 

It had not rained since lunch, and now the sun was out to welcome 
us to the plain, and the cold air of the mountains gave way to genial 
warmth. We soon covered the two or three miles that separated us 
from camp, and fording the swift brook Cherith, rode in exultantly to 
take a cup of afternoon tea and rest an hour or so on an easy camp 
bed. Our seventeen tents, including the large dining tent, were pitched 
in the form of an ellipse, all facing inward upon the inclosed parade 
ground, whose centre was adorned with a pile of camp chests that trans- 
ported the utensils of the dining tent and the kitchen. The chests were 
utilized, while in camp, as a table on which to serve afternoon tea, and 
as seats and lounging places for talkers in the evening after dinner. 
Our tents were wall-tents with flies to shed the rain, and were fitted up 
with single iron bedsteads, a double wash stand of iron, and a heavy 
rug spread over the earth floor. Camp chairs we captured for ourselves 
from the dining tent, when dinner was over, and surrendered them to 
the waiters in time for breakfast. Altogether the arrangements were 
much more comfortable than I had expected, and the meals were well 
cooked and well served. On that first evening the cook having had 
plenty of time for preparation, furnished us a table d' hote dinner, better 
than any we had had at the Hotel Jerusalem. Afterwards we had a 
great bonfire of thorns in camp, and nine Bedouins came in and per- 



*Gen. 13: 10, 11. 



MOUNT OF OLIVES, BETHANY AND JERICHO. 149 



formed for us the Bedouin sword-dance ; eight of them clapping hands 
and chanting a monotonous refrain, while the chief capered about slash- 
ing at imaginary foes with a long sword. It was quite novel and amus- 
ing ; but when our bonfire burned low, we were content to dismiss them 
with their well-earned backsheesh, and retired early to bed to be ready 
for the fatigues of another day. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



The Dead Sea and the Jordan. 

ROM childhood, all that I read in the Bible or elsewhere about 
the Dead Sea provoked my curiosity to see that unique sheet 
of water, about which such strange tales have been told ; and 
our excursion thither, about eight miles from camp, was therefore under- 
taken with eager interest. All the others of our party seemed to 
share the interest, for none staid behind. But some of them were 
disappointed in reaching the goal. Four of our ladies, who did 
not relish horseback riding, were conveyed in heavy clumsy palanquins ; 
a single-seated vehicle with a top and side curtains, but without wheels ; 
being supported upon two long shafts, between which a mule was har- 
nessed in front and another mule behind the vehicle — each sedate and 
reflective mule tended by a man to prod him on. These palanquins 
excited great mirth among us, and we assured each occupant that she 
looked like the Queen of Sheba riding in her chariot. They were told 
however that the mud would De too deep for the palanquins to go 
through to the Dead Sea; so they went directly to the Fords of the 
Jordan to await the remainder of us there. 

The day had opened brightly ; but we had not gone far when it began 
to rain, and we encountered showers till afternoon, when the sun came 
out. Our route to the Dead Sea was across the desolate plain, quite 
uncultivated and growing only thorns and sage-brush. One species of 
thorn was especially noteworthy as bearing the so-called "Apples of 
Sodom," or "Apples of the Dead Sea." The shrub grows from three to 
five feet high, and is thickly set with short spikes ; the blossom is purple 
with a yellow centre and looks like a potato flower, and the fruit is dark 
yellow in color ; when ripe, soft to the touch, like a tomato or persimmon, 
which it resembles in shape and size. When broken open it is found to 
contain only a row of black seeds in a pod and a few dry filaments. 




THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN. 151 



Very fitly the apple of Sodom is used as a figurative expression for any- 
thing that promises fair but disappoints bitterly on trial 

We had to ford the winding brook Cherith three times at the 
beginning of our ride, splashing through the swift current of water above 
our horses' knees ; and at the latter part of the ride we found con- 
siderable mud, especially when we had descended the bluff and came 
upon the mud-flat about two miles wide on the northern end of the 
Dead Sea. Here the mud was full six inches deep and very sticky ; 
and the rain poured hard upon us. But we waded obstinately through 
till we reached the level pebbly beach of the Sea, upon which a 
considerable surf was breaking; and we dismounted for a few minutes 
to gather some of the pebbles and to put our hands in the surf. Some 
of the party were exceedingly desirous of bathing, to test the truth of 
what they had read about the specific gravity and saltness of the water; 
but our guide did not think it best that any should go in on account of 
the storm. Yet the water looked very attractive near by as it did at a 
distance, clear and pure and blue, no noxious gases or odors arising 
from it, as some say; but as pretty a sheet of water to look at as any 
great inland lake, and picturesque in its setting. As we looked down it 
southward, there were bold, steep cliffs inclosing it, 2000 feet high on 
the west and 4000 feet high on the east, mostly bare and serrated rocks, 
but relieved here and there by spots of verdure at their base where 
streams ran down to empty themselves in the Sea. The sight was by 
no means so forbidding as it has been rhetorically represented by some 
writers, who would make us think that this was a mouth of Hades like 
the Acherusian marsh of classic geography. Nor is it true, as they say, 
that there are no signs of life here ; that no bird ever flies over the 
Dead Sea or rests upon its bosom or its shores. On the contrary 
swallows, storks, and ducks have often been seen flying over the water, 
and the latter swimming contentedly upon it. 

However, it is true that there are no fish in the Dead Sea; fish 
brought down by the Jordan die on entering the Sea, and no shell-fish 
have been found there. The water is too highly charged with mineral 
salts for them to live in it. For while ocean water contains a little less 
than four per cent, of salt, the water of the Dead Sea contains over 26 
per cent., nearly eight per cent, of this being common salt, and the 
remainder consists of the salts of various minerals. Hence the specific 
gravity of the water is greater than that of any water known — two per 
cent, greater than that of Salt Lake in Utah, and the body floats on it 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



like a log of wood. Swimming is easy there ; but it is said that while a 
bath is at first refreshing, it is irritating to the skin, which needs to be 
thoroughly rubbed off after bathing, as otherwise a crust of salt is 
formed on the person. The spray is also very painful if it gets into the 
eye, and in the mouth is bitter and strangling. This excessive 
saltness of the water is no doubt due to the fact that the Dead Sea has 
nf outflow but by evaporation. Hence while it acquires an infusion of 
salt from its constant feeders, the Jordan which pours into it six 
millions of tons of water daily, and four or five other tributary streams, 
besides torrents and springs some of which are brackish, it throws off by 
evaporation only fresh water, leaving all the saline particles behind 
which accumulate continually. This evaporation too is very great • 
because the Dead Sea being so much below the ocean-level and shut in 
by hills from any cooling winds the tropical heat is intense, and raises 
an unusual amount of vapor. Scientific observers say, that the water of 
the Dead Sea evaporates faster than it flows in, and that the level is 
lowering. But the Arabs who live near it say the lake is deeper than it 
used to be. 

The Dead Sea is about forty-five miles long and ten miles wide at its 
greatest breadth. Its upper or northern part is much the deepest ■ the 
extreme depth measured is 1,308 or 1,310 feet. While the southern 
end is quite shallow, only twelve or thirteen feet deep. Its shores are 
crusted with salt, and considerable sulphur, bitumen, pumice-stone and 
volcanic slag are found upon them. The geological formations of the 
eastern cliffs show that there was once a sudden fracture made by some 
mighty convulsion, and then a sinking of the rock west of the fracture, 
forming the deep cavity in which the sea lies. This, however, occurred 
in the remote geological ages ) it was not probably such a catastrophe 
that overwhelmed Sodom and Gomorrah and their sister cities, whether 
they stood at the southern end of the Dead Sea, or, as has been more 
recently thought, at the northern end. The argument is pretty evenly 
divided between the two views ; we will not enter upon it here. But 
the means by which the cities of the plain were destroyed was not an 
earthquake, of which no hint is given in the narrative of Genesis • it is 
more likely to be found in the stores of bitumen and sulphur in this re- 
gion, which fired by lightning caused the mighty conflagration. Sir J. 
W. Dawson, the eminent geologist, has propounded a theory suggested 
by his observations in Canada of inflammable gas and petroleum escap- 
ing from the ground through a bored hole and^taking fire, when the air 



THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN. 153 



flowing towards the eruption caused a whirlwind, which carried the 
dense smoke aloft and threw down burning bitumen all around. " Now 
if it is supposed that such accumulations of inflammable gas and petro- 
leum existed below the Plain of Siddim, their escape through the open- 
ing of a fissure might produce the effects described in Genesis, viz. : a 
pillar of smoke rising to the sky, burning bitumen and sulphur raining 
on the doomed cities, and fire spreading over the ground. The attend- 
ant phenomenon of the evolution of saline waters implied in the de- 
struction of Lot's wife would be a natural accompaniment, as water is 
usually discharged in such eruptions, and in this case it would be a brine 
thick with mud and fitted to encrust and cover any object reached 
by it." 

There have been no facilities for navigating the Dead Sea, a fact 
much regretted by tourists. But since we were there it is reported that 
two sailing boats, one rather large and heavy, intended for cargo, and 
the other smaller and lighter for passengers, have been conveyed from 
Jaffa to Jerusalem by rail, and thence by road to this sea. The boats 
belong to the Sultan, as does the sea, which forms part of the crown - 
property, and it is said to be Abdul Hamid's purpose to turn to good 
account the salt, bitumen and sulphur that abound on its shores. Thus 
does modern enterprise penetrate the stagnation of ages in this desolate 
region. 

Leaving the Dead Sea we rode over the barren plain about four 
miles to the Fords of the Jordan, where we rejoined the other portion 
of our party, and lunched with them on the bank of the stream. The 
sight of the famous Jordan was disappointing. We found it a small and 
muddy stream, at this point perhaps 90 feet wide and 8 or 10 feet deep ; 
being swollen by the rains beyond its usual size and depth, and over- 
flowing its mud-banks, that are overgrown with thickets of willows, 
acacias, tamerisks, oleanders, and reeds. The current was very swift ; 
as would naturally be the case, since the river falls 3,000 feet from its 
source to its mouth, a distance of about 105 miles in a straight line, 
though its tortuous channel makes its length much more. Thus the 
actual distance between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is only 60 
miles, but the river by its windings makes it 200 miles. Its rapidity 
gives it its name, which means the Flowing " or " the Descender." Of 
course it is not a navigable stream for traffic, nor is it much resorted to 
for fishing. It does not appear to have been bridged anywhere till 
Roman times, but was crossed at fords; though David's household, 



154 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



when he returned to Jerusalem after the defeat of Absalom were ferried 
over on a raft.* 

The ford, where we took our view of the river, is said to be the place 
where the Israelites crossed on dry land, when the waters were divinely 
held back for their safe passage. t Some modern scholars have supposed 
that the stoppage of the waters was due to a landslide in the upper part 
of the valley, which formed a dam across the river and held the waters 
back till all the people had passed over ! This is also said to be the 
place where Elijah and Elisha crossed, having smitten the waters with 
Elijah's mantle so that they parted and yielded to the prophets a pas- 
sage on dry land.i And this is the traditional spot where John bap- 
tized the multitudes ; and where he baptized our Savior, when the heav- 
ens were opened and the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. § 
This last sacred association of the spot has made it for ages the favorite 
bathing place of pilgrims, who come here in immense numbers on Easter 
Monday to plunge in the river, and to carry away in bottles and vessels 
some of the Jordan water to be used at home for baptismal purposes. 
As the date of Easter differs in the Roman and the Greek churches, the 
rival crowds fortunately come at different times ; so that no collision 
takes place between them. The caravan starts from Jerusalem under 
protection of Turkish soldiers, and sometimes there are thousands of 
people who come together, men, women and children of various nation- 
alities; all eager to bathe in the Jordan. We were there a week earlier; 
but we saw a large number of Russian pilgrims coming out of the water 
as we rode up. 

From the Jordan we paced back half a dozen miles to camp, passing 
on our way great patches of luxuriantly blossoming wild flowers and 
some cultivated fields that belong to the Arab inhabitants of Riha or 
modern Jericho. We rode through the squalid village, where a half 
ruined tower is pointed out as the house of Zacchaeus , but the Jericho 
of our Lord's day was probably two miles west nearer the mountain. 
Most of the houses of Riha were built of rude walls of stone plastered 
with mud, and capped with roofs of brush wood and mud. The site is 
believed to be near that of ancient Gilgal, where Joshua had his head- 
quarters after the crossing of the Jordan, and where he set up the 
twelve stones taken from the bed of the Jordan, || and where he saw 
the angelic Captain of the Lord's host with his drawn sword in his 



*II Sam. 19 : iF. 
g Matt. 3 : 6, 13-16. 



t Josh. 3: 14-17- 
Josh. 4: 19, 20. 



J II Kings 2 : 8, 14 



THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN. 155 

hand.* Here the Israelites first ate of" the old corn of the land," and 
the manna on which they had subsisted for forty years in the wilder- 
ness ceased to fall on the morrow after, f Henceforth they were to live 
by natural means ; miracle ending when it was no longer needed. 
Here the generation of Israelites that had grown up since their fathers 
came out of Egypt were circumcised at God's command.^ Here the 
tabernacle of worship containing the ark of the covenant was set up 
and remained till the land was divided between the tribes at Shiloh, 
when it was removed thither. § This Gilgal was one of the towns to 
which Samuel came in circuit every year to judge the people. || Here 
Saul was confirmed king of Israel after his victory over the Ammonites; 
and here he disobeyed God later in offering burnt- offerings, and lost 
his kingdom by divine appointment. If Here too he met Samuel after 
his victory over the Amalekites and was rebuked by the prophet for his 
vainglorious disobedience in sparing Agag the king of Amalek, whom 
Samuel then and there hewed in pieces before the Lord.* 

All these historical associations made the locality an interesting 
one to us. But we were glad that we did not have to stop at the 
uninviting hotel in the village, but could go to our clean camp ; where 
after dinner we sat in the mild evening, and watched the brilliant stars 
come out and the lights twinkling in the hermits' caves on Mount 
Quarantania, till tired nature suggested repose. 

* Josh. 5: 13. f Josh. 5 : 11, 12. i Josh. 5 : 2-7. \ Josh. 18:1. 

i| I Sam. 7:16. \ I Sam. 11 I15 and 13 :8-I4. *I Sam. 15 : 12-23. 



CHAPTER XX. 



From Jericho to Ai and Ramallah. 

HEN we broke up camp at Riha or Jericho we intended to 
make our way northwest through the wilderness to Bethel, and 
thence north to Singil, where we expected to find our camp 
the same evening. We had no thought of seeing Ai except from a dis- 
tance ; but we made, like Joshua's men, a somewhat intimate and disa- 
greeable acquaintance with it, on account of a terrible storm that over- 
took us in the mountains. We took an early start that memorable 
morning, though we had not slept very well because the jackals howled 
so mournfully about our tents during the night. And while we had a 
guard of Bedouins watching our tents to protect us from robbers, we 
had some apprehension lest our guards should themselves rob us, as 
they often pilfer from their employers. Our guide warned us to keep 
our clothes and valises in the centre of the tent, lest one of the Bed- 
ouins should creep up outside and raise the side of the canvas and steal 
something. And two of our own men were kept on watch all night to 
have an eye upon these Arab protectors. 

Under these circumstances we did not sleep very soundly, and having 
been wakened at daybreak and breakfasted at quarter past five o'clock, 
we felt somewhat demoralized as we stood around or sat upon camp- 
chests, while the tents were quickly taken down, and they and their fur- 
niture and our baggage and the dining and kitchen utensils were packed 
up and loaded on mules. At half past six we rode away over the plain 
northwestward, through the thickly-growing thorn trees, and passed 
through the Valley of Achor, where Achan was stoned to death at 
Joshua's command for his trespass in purloining silver and gold and a 
goodly Babylonish garment at the capture of Jericho — a trespass that 
cost the Israelites their bitter defeat at Ai.* A little beyond this we 

* Josh. 7: 1-6. 



FROM JERICHO TO AI AND RAMALLAH. 157 



came to the site of ancient Jericho, which is marked by a few large 
mounds covered with soil. At their foot we found the Sultan's Spring, 
or the Fountain of £lisha as it is often called, because it is believed to 
be the source whose waters Elisha healed by casting salt therein.* It 
is a large spring, filling a considerable reservoir and sending forth 
quite a stream, and the water is of the best quality to this day, as the 
writer cau testify, for we had it on our table to drink while in camp at 
Riha. Several brooks flow from this fountain, affording irrigation to the 
fields of grain and beans found in this part of the plain. The soil is 
evidently fertile ; all that it needs is water to make it fruitful as in days 
of old, when Jericho was called " the city of palm trees," f and cotton, 
honey, and balsam were among its valuable articles of commerce. 

We skirted the mounds which contain in their rubbish all the remains 
of the once famous city. Fragments of cut stone and pottery and glass 
show Roman occupation once, and seem to confirm the theory that the 
Jericho of our Lord's day was in this neighborhood on or near the site 
of the Jericho of Joshua's day, rather than at Riha, as some think. 
Doubtless it stretched out both north and south, under the lofty western 
hills ; for Herod the Great spent much money here in building palaces 
and fortresses and a circus for games. In this city the monster died ; 
having left a command with his sister Salome, that after his death she 
should kill all the chief men of the Jews, whom he had summoned to 
Jericho and imprisoned there, in order that there might be mourning at 
his death. But his brutal order was not carried out. Pleasanter asso- 
ciations are those which connect our Savior with this city ; His healing 
of blind Bartimseus and another blind man who sat by the wayside beg- 
ging, % and his gracious interview with Zacchaeus, the rich publican who 
had climbed a tree to see Him, and secured the unexpected privilege of 
entertaining Jesus at his house. § 

Of the more ancient Jericho we know from the Scripture that it was 
a fenced city, whose gates were shut at dark as is the custom still 
throughout the East, and whose walls were so large and strong that 
Rahab's house was built on them, with a projecting window. || It was 
not a very large city, because the Israelites were able to march around it 
seven times in one day, the seventh day that they compassed it bearing 
the ark and blowing trumpets. IT And it was on high ground, because 
when the walls'fell the Israelites " went up into the city." * It was a 



*2 Kings 2: 2t, 22. 
g Luke 19: 1-10. 



t Judges 1 : 16 and 2 Chron. 28: 15. 
|| Josh. 2 : 5, 15. 

* Josh. 6 : 20. 



% Matt. 20 : 29-34. 
\ Josh. 6: 15. 



158 



A D OMTNE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



rich city for those days, since we read of oxen and sheep and asses 
within it, and of gold and silver and vessels of brass and iron and goodly 
garments. * It was utterly destroyed by Joshua, who pronounced a 
curse upon any one who should attempt to rebuild it, i. <?., to fortify it. | 
For the city seems to have been occupied again in the days of the 
Judges by Eglon, king of Moab, and it is mentioned as existing in 
David's time, in connection with his embassy to the Ammonites ; % but 
the fulfillment of Joshua's curse upon the rebuilder is recorded as 
occurring long after in the reign of Ahatf, when it fell upon Hiel the 
Bethelite, who undertook to fortify the place. § After this we find a 
company of the sons of the prophets living at Jericho, who witnessed 
Elisha's miraculous crossing of the Jordan after Elijah's translation. || 
And finally it was to Jericho that King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, 
fled, when Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem ; but he was overtaken 
in the plain by the Babylonians, and was made a prisoner and brought 
before Nebuchadnezzar, who put his eyes out and carried him in chains 
to Babylon. 

As the mounds of ancient Jericho lie very near the hills and 
mountains, we could see how easily those two spies, whom Joshua sent 
to view the city and whom the believing Rahab befriended, could, when 
she let them down by a cord through her window outside the city wall, 
escape to the wild fastnesses of the mountain; where they staid three 
days till their pursuers, who were searching the plain for them and 
watching the fords of the Jordan, returned. Then the two spies 
descended the mountain and passed over the Jordan, and made their 
report to Joshua.* Possibly, as we rode into this wilderness of hills by 
a narrow valley, we were on the track taken by these spies. More 
probably we were on the track taken by the men whom Joshua sent 
after the capture of Jericho to Ai to spy out the latter place, f Cer- 
tainly we were riding along the base of the lofty mountain Quarantania, 
which is believed to have been the scene of our Savior's Forty Days' 
Fast and Temptation by the Devil after His baptism in the Jordan. % 
From an early day the numerous caves in its limestone cliffs were 
tenanted by Christian hermits ; a few Greek monks still live in some of 
these caves, whose twinkling lights it was that we saw from our camp 
the previous evening. 



* Josh. 6 : 2i, 24. 
§'I Kings 16 134. 

* Josh. 2 : 15-24. 



f Josh. 6 : 26. 
|| II Kings 2: 15. 
t Josh. 7 : 2. 



X Judges 3 : 13 and II Sam. 10 : 5. 
% II Kings 25 : 4-7. . 
t Matt. 4 : 1-11 



FROM JERICHO TO AI AND RAMALLAH. 159 



Our path through this valley was wet with the recent rains, and 
bordered on either side with wheat fields, above which frowned the 
rocky hills and the dark, overhanging clouds that threatened heavier 
rain than we had already experienced in the early morning. After a 
mile or two we came out into a wide, grassy valley, in which Bedouins 
were pasturing their sheep and cattle on the hillsides ; and we saw their 
black tents arranged in a circle near by. Then we began to climb a 
mountain bare and bleak, where the trail grew very steep as it wound 
along the edge of precipices, and so narrow that we were obliged to go 
in single file. As we rose higher, the wind blew more and more 
violently; till we looked back anxiously at the palanquins that were 
following us a considerable distance behind, and feared lest they and 
their occupants would be blown over the precipice. We saw inky black 
clouds driving towards us from the north, ever and anon riven with 
jagged lightning, while the thunder roared and rattled from one moun- 
tain peak to another, as it does in our own Catskills. We knew that a 
severe storm was close upon us, and there was no possible shelter from 
it ; not a house nearer than Jericho, that we had left miles behind ; not 
so much as the protection of a great rock or a clump of bushes on that 
perfectly bald mountain. 

So we pushed on in the gathering darkness, but we had only reached 
the first summit when the storm burst furiously upon us. Our horses could 
not face the pitiless blast and the ice-cold rain. They would not go on, but 
stood still and turned tail to the storm. The wind was too violent for 
us to hold up umbrellas, and we had to sit on our horses and take the 
rain and the accompanying hailstones on our backs. Nearly all the 
party wore water-proof coats or cloaks, but they were soon wet through 
and afforded no more protection than the heavy cloth overcoats of others. 
Two men wore genuine English mackintoshes, and they were the only 
persons who did not get thoroughly wet. Most of us men wore rubber 
or leather leggings and rubber overshoes, but they were of little avail 
in such a terrific gale. After half an hour of drenching the rain slacked 
a little and the wind quieted somewhat, and the four palanquins, having 
joined us in safety, for which we felt truly thankful, we went on our 
toilsome w r ay. 

Presently our trail led us into a level basin, where the mud was so 
deep by reason of this sudden downpouring of rain that the foremost of 
our party narrowly escaped being stuck fast in it. We were obliged to 
leave the path and circle around the side of a hill covered with loose 



160 A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

stones. Here our guide and the dragoman decided to abandon the 
route they had intended to take, because they knew it would be 
impassable on account of the mud, and to lead the party by a rocky 
and rarely used path over the mountains towards Bethel. We 
proceeded over places so frightful that description could not make one 
understand how steep and rocky and slippery and dangerous they were, 
whether we were ascending or descending. It seems now to the writer 
like an awful nightmare to recall that ride. All day long it rained, 
steady rain alternating with terrific showers, each one of which drenched 
us afresh and chilled us to the bone. The water poured in streams 
down the sides of the hills, making the rocks slippery as ice, and form- 
ing torrents in the ravines that we had to ford. How our horses 
managed to keep their footing was a marvel; but the strong, hardy little 
creatures bore us bravely on to our admiration. Then in many places 
the loose stones were mixed with mire a foot or more deep, where we 
feared we should be stalled ; but still our horses pulled us through. Up 
one mountain we would climb wearisomely, and then at the top would 
wonder how we should ever manage to descend it in safety ; and having 
reached the bottom would begin directly another ascent. So mile after 
mile we traversed that lonely wilderness; not a human habitation any- 
where to be seen — not even a tree to break the melancholy monotony 
of rocks and stones and mud. 

Our guide had impressed upon us at the start the importance of keep- 
ing together ; had told us that if one went astray in this wilderness it 
meant death ; for one would easily fall into the hands of the Bedouins, 
who prowled about seeking to find people to rob. So I determined at 
all hazards to keep in company with my sister, who, like myself, was ill - 
mounted on a slow-walking horse. We found that we were steadily 
falling behind the other horsemen, and even the mules who carried the 
palanquins. We pushed on as fast as we could, and at length passed 
one palanquin that had come to grief. One of the mules had fallen in 
the mud and could not be gotten up, and the guide and the assistant 
dragoman and one of our young men went back to assist the lady who 
had been riding in that palanquin. A little further on we found another 
palanquin that was similarly stalled. The lady in this vehicle was taken 
out and put on a spare horse that was a good one, and she soon passed 
us and joined the horsemen before us. We kept them in sight as long 
as we could, but continued to fall behind, and at last they disappeared. 

Through the deep mud we waded on after them till we reached a 



FROM JERICHO TO AI AND RAMALLAH. 161 



steep rocky descent, where the trail seemed to lose itself, and the 
precipitous decline looked utterly impassable. Our horses trembled, 
and refused to go down. I dismounted and tried to lead my com- 
panion's horse down; but he would not go. We rode back a little way, 
and tried to descend the rocks at another point where fresh tracks 
seemed to indicate that some of the party had gone, but again we 
failed. I shouted for help, hoping that some of those who had preceded 
us might hear ; but they had passed out of hearing, and we realized that 
we two were alone in that horrible wilderness. We thought that we 
might have wandered from the right road, and so we rode back some 
distance to see if any other path forked from the one we had taken. 
We found none, but we lingered to see if help would not come. Pres- 
ently we saw two natives and a loaded mule approaching, and hoped 
they would assist us. But when they came up and I appealed to them, 
they could not understand, but went stolidly on their way. As we did not 
know that they were our own men but feared they might be Bedouins, 
we did not venture to follow them, and they soon vanished down the 
precipice, jumping like goats from rock to rock. 

All this time the rain was pouring, and the wind blew very hard and 
cold. My fingers were so stiff that I could not unbutton my overcoat 
to see what time of day my watch might show. We rode back to the 
rocks and made a third attempt to descend, but failed again. So I said, 
" It is useless to try further ; we had better ride back a piece and wait 
for the guide and his party, who are certainly behind us." We rode a 
little way and sat on our horses in the soaking rain for perhaps half an 
hour, till at last, to our joy, we saw the little company slowly approach- 
ing. We fell into the procession ; and when we came to the precipi- 
tous rocks, dismounted and went down on foot, leading our horses. In 
the ravine at the bottom of this hill we found a raging torrent knee- 
deep, which we had to ford. On the other side of the brook rose 
another steep hill, on whose side we saw a third palanquin, which had 
been abandoned also, and the lady who occupied it, as we afterwards 
learned, had been put on a horse, though she had never ridden in her 
life. We clambered up this precipitous hill on foot, over the broken 
stones mixed with mire, down which the water ran in streams. At the 
top my companion and I mounted and rode through several fields, 
where the mud was about fourteen inches deep, while the others plod- 
ded on foot through the mire. 

Ere long we overtook the two men and the mule, who had previously 

1 1 



162 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



passed us, and found that they belonged to the party. The luncheon 
was packed on the mule ; but the poor beast had fallen in the mud and 
could not be gotten up by any amount of beating and kicking, and the 
luncheon was hopelessly submerged. The guide decided to send Salah, 
the assistant dragoman, on after the remainder of the party to get help 
from the village of Deir Dewan, which we could now see on a hill in 
the distance ; and as my companion and I could be of no assistance there, 
and were too much chilled to stand still longer, we followed Salah on the 
trail through the mud. After riding a mile we met Salah, who had 
dashed on ahead, coming back with the report that the party had sent 
a man who was following him. So we determined to push on to Deir 
Dewan and rejoin the main party. We rode what seemed a long time, 
and were caught in another heavy shower, before we reached this Arab 
village very near the site of ancient Ai. It was surrounded by extensive 
groves of olive trees and cultivated fields, and looked attractive to us as 
a shelter from the storms we had encountered in the wilderness. We 
entered the village and found our friends huddled together in a large, 
dark and dirty room, called the khan, through whose roof the water 
dropped on us, making yellow stains on our clothes, and on whose 
dirt floor the Arabs had kindled a little fire of embers that filled the 
room with smoke but gave out scarcely any heat. It was half-past three 
o'clock in the afternoon when we arrived, having been nine hours m the 
saddle without a morsel to eat. The foremost of the party had arrived 
nearly two hours earlier, others had straggled in like ourselves. 

About thirty minutes after we came in, the guide arrived with the rear 
guard who had met with so many difficulties ; and we silently offered 
prayers of thankfulness that the whole party now re-united had escaped 
alive and unhurt from the perils of those frightful precipices. Abdallah, the 
chief dragoman, brought in some of the thin, flat, flabby cakes of bread, 
that the Arabs make from unbolted flour, brown in color and having a 
coarse half-baked taste ; no dainty food, but we were hungry enough to 
eat our scanty portion. He and the guide held a council, and it was de- 
termined that we should seek refuge in the Latin Convent at Ramallah, 
two and a half hours' ride west ; for we could not spend the night stand- 
ing up in this comfortless khan, and nothing was known of the wherea- 
bouts of our camp — only that it could not possibly have gotten through 
the mud, and must be miles away in the wilderness. So at 4.30 
P. M. we paid the greedy Arabs their extortionate charges and mounted 
again our jaded horses who had not had a mouthful all day, and fol- 



FROM JERICHO TO AI AND RAMALLAH. 163 



lowed another rude path over rocks and through loose stones and mud, 
glad enough to leave Deir Dewan and ancient Ai behind us. 

At dusk we reached Bethel situated on a bleak, stony hill • the 
place where Jacob on his way as a fugitive to Padan-aram tarried one 
night, and " took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pil- 
lows, and lay down to sleep",* and dreamed his wonderful dream of the 
ladder reaching from earth to heaven. I thought as I looked around, 
that if Jacob had had a thousand men with him that night, they could 
all have gathered off the hill stones enough for their pillows and left suf- 
ficient stones to pillow Esau's forces besides, if the latter had followed 
them. Not even the hills of New England can show so many loose 
stones of assorted sizes as does Bethel. It was between Bethel and Ai, 
whence we had come, that Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, had once built 
an altar ;f and here he afterwards lived awhile with Lot his nephew; X 
and here he and Lot agreed to separate, and from this hill Lot saw the 
plain of Jordan and chose it for his portion. § From those days Bethel 
became a sacred place; and hence King Jeroboam after the division of 
the trioes set up here one of the golden calves by which he ensnared the 
Ten Tribes into idolatry. || It is a wretched village now consisting of a 
few stone hovels and two or three better houses and a high square stone 
building that must be a relic of former prosperity. At the foot of the hill 
we saw, by a fountain, a camp of five tents, occupied by an English 
party who had just come from Jerusalem, and we almost envied them 
their comparative comfort. 

From Bethel we rode on in the twilight past another fountain, noted 
as the spot where the old prophet of Bethel overtook the man of God 
who came from Judah to predict the destruction of King Jeroboam's 
altar; and by falsehood induced the man of God to go home with him 
for refreshment — an act of disobedience to the divine command on the 
part of this man of God, which resulted in his being killed by a lion. If 
At this point we passed some Russian pilgrims tramping wearily along 
the rough path, bound like ourselves for Ramallah where they would 
find refuge in a Greek hospice. Their condition was even more pitiable 
than ours, for they had no horses nor mules to ride. At last after seven 
o'clock in the evening we reached the Latin Convent, and perhaps we 
were never before so glad to find a shelter. It was a large stone build- 
ing, occupied by two monks, and affording in the lower story room for 



* Gen. 28: 11. 
gGen. 13:5-11. 



t Gen. 12:8. 

|| I Kings 12 : 28, 29. 



I Gen. 13:3, 4 

ft I Kings 13:11-25. 



164 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



a school for the village children taught by a couple of nuns. The sisters- 
were invisible to our party however; and women are not allowed to stop 
in the monastery except m circumstances of distress such as had over- 
taken our company. But the good brothers cordially welcomed our 
whole party, and put at our disposal a large upper room with a stone 
floor and having divans around its sides and ornamented with pictures 
of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. They gave us a charcoal brasier to warm 
us ; but as only five or six could gather around it at once, it did not help 
us as much as did the brandy and arrack they brought us, which we all 
took gratefully. As soon as possible they made a quantity of hot tea y 
and three or four cups apiece of the steaming liquid brought back life to 
our exhausted systems. 

Presently it was announced that our cook had arrived and gone into 
the town to buy provisions, and would serve us a dinner later. By nine 
o'clock that genius had accomplished what seemed a miracle when we 
went down to the kitchen and saw the little charcoal stove on which he 
had cooked the meal. We had hot soup and curried rice and roast 
veal and coarse Arab bread, with a limited supply of bitter Bethlehem 
wine from the stores of the monastery. We voted our cook a fairy, a 
priceless treasure, a Syrian Delmonico ; and wet and chilled as we were 
we took fresh heart. After dinner we went up stairs and prepared beds 
for the night. The kind monks gave us three bed rooms, in which our 
eleven ladies were lodged; and for us men the divans in the large room 
were arranged and quilts laid on the stone floor, and taking off our over- 
coats and rubber leggings we turned in with all our wet clothes on to 
sleep as best we could — twenty of us in one room ! Of course our lug- 
gage had not arrived ; we did not know where it was, nor whether we 
should recover it. We were like shipwrecked mariners rescued from 
the wreck and lodged in a life-saving station, but we were thankful that 
we were saved and had shelter and food. The Lord had preserved us 
amidst the dangers and exposure of that awful day ; and we rendered 
praise to Him. 



CHAPTER XXL 



Ramallah and Sinjil. 

E lay in our novel quarters in the monastery till nearly eight 
o'clock next morning in order to keep warm, and upon rising 
found we had dried our clothes on us. Meanwhile our ener- 
getic guide had been stirring, and had dispatched men in search of the 
baggage and the camp equipments, and Abdallah, the chief dragoman, 
had gone to Jerusalem, about twelve miles distant, to bring Mr. Rolla 
Floyd, the contractor, to consult with us about the reorganization of the 
expedition. We obtained such breakfast as could be furnished, and 
spent the morning walking up and down the long corridor, or hanging 
over the brasier of coals to try to get warm. Then reports began to 
come in, that many of the Russian pilgrims, who had been visiting Naza- 
reth and were returning on foot to Jerusalem, to keep the Greek Easter, 
had died by the road side exhausted in yesterday's terrible storm. That 
three hundred of them had been given shelter in the Greek church and 
hospice here in Ramallah, of whom several had since died. In 
all seventy-two deaths were reported. The sad fate of these poor creatures 
made us feel that we ought not to complain of any hardship we had suf- 
fered or had still to endure. Compared to theirs how easy had been 
our experience and how comfortable were now our quarters. 

Early in the afternoon Abdallah returned from Jerusalem, bringing 
with him Mr. Rolla Floyd to our great satisfaction. He told us that he 
had sent a fresh force of men and mules from Jerusalem to hunt up our 
camp and baggage, and assist the men in charge of them and recover 
the palanquins, and that he would himself stay with us and reorganize 
the expedition, and accompany us to our first camping ground at Sinjil. 
His presence and confidence inspired us with some degree of hope, and 
while many of the party had talked of abandoning the horseback tour 
and returning to Jerusalem, the sentiment began to change in favor of 



i66 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



going on. Word came to us also that the camp-equipment had been 
heard from and was safe, though stalled in the mud miles away, and 
that our personal luggage was intact and would arrive before night. Of 
this we were very glad, as we had had neither brushes nor combs nor 
soap to use since our unexpected arrival in this Convent. 

Cheered by these tidings several of us visited a Mission in the neigh- 
borhood, maintained by some American Quakers and called the Friends' 
Mission, whose ladies had come in the morning to see our party, and in- 
vited us to their home to get our clothes dried and to lodge there if any 
would like to do so. These excellent ladies keep a school for the in- 
struction of the native children, and are doing a noble work. We found 
them very cordial and kind, and their cheerful sitting room warmed by 
a wood stove looked more like home than anything we had seen since 
we left America. They actually had a carpet on the floor, and a sofa, 
and rocking chairs, and American books and newspapers on their table. 
For the first time since we left Jericho I got thoroughly warm, and 
dreaded to return to the cold, damp, cheerless Convent. But Abdallah 
came after us to see us home, as a fight had broken out in the village 
between two factions of the Mohammedans, and stones and other mis- 
siles were flying furiously. They were fighting, it appeared, over the 
spoil taken from the bodies of two of the dead Russian pilgrims, and it 
was rumored that these pilgrims had been first murdered and then rob- 
bed. From the windows of the Friends' sitting room we could see the 
fight in the distance. Abdaliah brought us safely to our quarters by a 
back way, and then we went up on the flat roof of the Convent and 
watched the conflict. There were scores of men hurling rocks at one 
another from roofs and along the streets, and shouting curses in their to 
us unintelligible language, till at length the village officials succeeded in 
quelling the riot. 

Our luggage reached us, to our great joy, before six o'clock, consid- 
erably wet and dirty, as it had lain in the mud so many hours, but we 
could now make our toilets for dinner. Eight or ten of our party went 
afterwards to the Friends' Mission to stay all night, which made more 
room for the remainder of us in our limited lodgings and afforded us a 
larger supply of quilts to cover us. So that night we ventured to take 
off our boots and our coats before we retired ! The second day was not 
wet and showery as the preceding day had been, but the sun came out 
bright and warm. It was not thought best, however, that we should 
resume our journey till the morrow on account of the uncertainty of 



RAMALLAH AND SINJIL. 



167 



the weather. So we spent a second day in the monastery, most of it 
on the flat stone roof, where we walked up and down or sat in the sun- 
shine reading and talking, and had our photographs taken by an amateur 
photographer of the party. From this point of observation we could 
plainly see Mizpeh on a high hill south, where Saul was chosen king,* 
and at the base of the hill nearest us Gibeon, where the Lord appeared 
in a dream by night to young king Solomon and offered him the choice 
of gifts. f We had the sorrow of saying good bye to two of our ladies, 
who had decided to return to Jerusalem and to go from Jaffa by 
steamer to Beirut, and await us either there or at Damascus. From the 
roof we waved our farewells to them, as all the rest of us had de- 
termined to continue the ride to Damascus. 

We noticed during the morning a number of Russian pilgrims passing 
into the town by the road we had come in from the north, some of them 
walking, the feebler riding on donkeys that had been sent out to bring 
them in. They were headed by the cavass of the Russian Archimandrite 
at Jerusalem. A cavass is an attendant or body-guard of an official, 
who precedes the latter and clears the way for him, carrying in his hand 
a huge truncheon loaded at the bottom, as a policeman with us carries 
his club. Later some of us followed these pilgrims through the filthy 
street and through a crowd of wild-looking villagers to the hospice ad- 
joining the Greek church, where the poor creatures were cared for. Most 
of them were women of coarse features and shabby dress, some wear- 
ing men's boots and heavy coats, and they were in all stages of ex- 
haustion. A young Greek priest with long, yellow hair and yellow 
beard, and his attendant, were distributing among them great wooden 
bowls of soup made with rice, which the famished pilgrims ladled into 
their mouths with wooden spoons. Meanwhile the Russian Consul from 
Jerusalem was in the Greek church holding an inquest on the bodies of 
twelve more persons who had died, thirteen having already been buried 
in Ramallah. Of these twenty-five it was stated that twenty-two were 
women and three men ; the latter it was believed had been murdered by 
the Moslems for the sake of robbery. Some of the women, too, it was 
reported, had been robbed after they fell exhausted in the storm. A 
great sensation had been excited among the Greek Christians by these 
reports, and a thorough investigation was being made by the Consul. 
After the inquest the dead were brought out from the church wrapped 
in sheets, and were all buried in one large grave with the rites of the 
Greek church. 



*I Sam. 10 : 17-25. 



fl Kiugs 3:5. 



i68 



A D OMINE IN BIB IE IANDS. 



The next morning we breakfasted early, bade adieu to our kind hosts 
with a new feeling of respect and gratitude for monastic institutions 
that we had never felt before, and started upon our ride to Sinjil, where 
Mr. Floyd reported that our tents were set up and everything ready for 
us. The day was cloudy and cool, but no rain fell by the way. We 
retraced our steps towards Bethel, passing through £1 Bireh, the ancient 
Beeroth, a city of Benjamin, and noted as the home of Baanah and 
Rechab, the murderers of King Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul.* This is 
supposed to have been the place where Joseph and Mary missed the 
child Jesus, when they were returning from Jerusalem to Nazareth ; as it 
is often made the first stopping place on the way.f It is now a forlorn 
hamlet of stone hovels, but still boasts a fine spring of water and the 
ruins of a mediaeval church and of an old khan. An hour further on we 
reached Bethel, whose name, meaning " the house of God", was given 
it by Jacob in commemoration of his wcnderful dream there. In the 
glare of day it did not look any more inviting to us than it did when we 
passed through it in the dusk of evening three days before. At this 
point we came into what they call the high road to Samaria; once in 
Roman times no doubt a good road, but now a mere bed of loose stones 
and rocks mingled with mud that was quite deep in places, though the 
road was not nearly so bad as the trail we had followed through the 
wilderness. A little further we saw in the distance Ophrah, the birth- 
place of Gideon and the scene of his interview with the angel and of 
his experiences with the fleece.^ It became a centre of idolatry after- 
wards in consequence of the ephod which he made and put there. § 
Some suppose this to have been the city called Ephraim, to which 
Jesus resorted for privacy and safety from His enemies after the raising 
of Lazarus from the dead. || 

We rode still through a rough and barren region, till we descended a 
precipitous way over sheer rocks and reached the Wady el-Hararniyeh 
or Robbers' Glen, a deep valley between lofty hills that in crusading 
times were crowned with forts now in ruins. This narrow valley is 
planted thickly with olive trees and flg trees, presenting a grateful con- 
trast to the desolate country we had traversed It is a lonely place, con- 
taining no houses, though there are villages in the neighborhood, whose 
thieves find it a favorable spot for marauding operations — and hence its 
name. It was in this glen that most of those Russian pilgrims, whose 



*II Sam. 4:5-8. 
I Judges 8 ; 27. 



tlytike 2:41, 45. 
1 John 11 -.54. 



% Judges 6. 



RAMALLAH AND SINJIL. 



169 



sufferings I have mentioned, were overcome by that terrible storm j and 
some were swept away by the flood that swelled the brook flowing 
through the glen ; and here their bodies were robbed by the Arabs. We 
stopped and took lunch at the Ain Haramiyeh or Fountain of the Rob- 
bers at the upper part of the valley ; where our refreshment tent was 
pitched in a most picturesque locality, near the foot of a wall of rock, 
20 or 30 feet high, covered with growing plants of all shades of green. 
The water trickles through the rocks and produces a thick growth of 
grass on the level; and we were so delighted with the rare verdure that 
we rested there a couple of hours. 

We had but a short ride farther — three miles — to our camp at 
Sinjil, and the sun came out so warm that for the first time in Pales- 
tine I rode without my heavy overcoat on, having strapped it behind 
the saddle. We were now approaching the territory of Samaria, whose 
abundant streams and pastures and grain fields and fruit trees afford a 
marked contrast to the rocky, uncultivated hills of Judaea. This was 
the portion assigned to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's 
sons. And well did the dying Jacob prophesy : " Joseph is a fruitful 
bough • even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the 
wall." * Travelling through this region, I could readily understand how, 
with such natural resources, Ephraim became so rich and powerful a 
tribe. But how Judah in its isolation from the other tribes, and with 
the natural disadvantages of its territory, could have developed so much 
of strength and prosperity as it did, seemed to me a mystery. How 
could the country ever have sustained so great a population as the 
Scriptures represent to have belonged to Judah ? I asked myself. 
Doubtless all these sterile and rocky hills must then have been covered 
with soil, and been highly cultivated, or afforded pasture for countless 
flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. And still upon this supposition it 
is difficult for the traveller of to-day to see whence Judah's prosperity 
came. It can only be explained as wrought by the special blessing of 
Providence, given in reward to Judah's loyalty to the divine worship 
and the divinely appointed government. 

Our road ere long brought us by a steep ascent on the side of a hill 
to our camp, that was pitched in a sightly place close by and overlook- 
ing the village of Sinjil. From the higher ground in the rear of the 
camp we obtained quite an extensive view. Below the hill on which 
we stood, the valley widens into a fertile plain some four miles long, 



* Gen. 49 : 22. 



170 



A D QMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



and perhaps a mile and a half wide, in which we saw a large village 
called Turmus Aya. In this plain, probably, the hosts of Israel were 
wont to assemble when they came up before the Lord at Shiloh, whose 
site was pointed out to us on the range of hills rising on the opposite 
side of the valley. Here Joshua divided the land by lot between the 
tribes, and here the Tabernacle was set up and remained till the Ark 
of God was captured by the Philistines in the last days of Eli.* During 
that period Shiloh was the centre of worship, and practically the capital 
of the country. Here was celebrated that annual feast of the Lord, at 
which tne Jewish maidens danced, and here occurred the event related 
in the book of Judges, when the remnant of the tribe of Benjamin that 
survived the civil war were permitted to carry off the maidens to be 
their wives. f This narrative, by the way, describes so particularly the 
location of Shiloh, that Dr. Robinson, in 1835, was able to identify it, 
although the site had been forgotten since the time of St. Jerome. 
Shiloh, the historian says, is " on the north side of Bethel, on the east 
side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the 
south of Lebonah." % That was exactly the situation pointed out to us 
as we stood on the hill behind our camp. We could see the highway 
winding over the hills towards Nablous, the ancient Shechem, and the 
village of El Lubban or the ancient Lebonah east of it, and a little south 
of this village the ruins of Shiloh. With a glass we could see the small 
ruined mosque that stands there, and the tumbled low walls that some 
suppose to have been the foundations of the Tabernacle. We could 
also see from this point Mount Carmel on the west, and the range of 
Mount Gerizim on the north. 

Our stay in camp at Sinjii was a quiet and pleasant one ; nor did we 
fail to hold religious service m one of our tents to give thanks to God 
for His merciful preservation of us amid the dangers we had lately en- 
countered. This service, like that which we held on our steamer on the 
Nile, and like the service we held in the sitting room of the Hotel Jeru- 
salem that rainy Sunday evening, seemed to unite us as one Christian 
family, though representing many different denominations, and we re- 
joiced to resort to a common mercy-seat. 

* Josh. 18:1, and I Sam. 4:11. f Judges 21. J Judges 21: ic. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



Jacob's Well and Nablous. 

j^j^jUR ride from Sinjil to Nablous was not an eventful one ; indeed 
we were quite willing to be spared a renewal of thrilling ex- 
periences. We returned over the road by which we had come 
down the hill into the valley, and skirted the western border of the valley 
till our path wound into the rocky hills northward, which we crossed, 
and then passed through the valley of Lebonah, green with fields of 
wheat. We crossed another range of steep hills, where our horses had 
to climb step above step of rock, and then descend on the other side 
over rocks that looked like the bed of a mountain torrent. So we 
came slowly down to the plain of El Mukhnah, called in the book of 
Genesis the plain of Moreh, the first place in Canaan to which Abraham 
came from the east and where he built his first altar to the Lord.* 
From hence he moved to Bethel, f and afterwards to Hebron.^ The 
plain is nine miles long from north to south and four miles wide, and 
when we saw it was just a succession of luxuriant wheat fields, the grain 
being about a foot high. Men and women were busy in the fields on 
either side of the road pulling out weeds to be carried home for fodder, 
and here and there cattle tied by short ropes were allowed to eat what 
was within their reach. 

Here on the soft ground we made more rapid progress than on the 
stony steeps of the mountains, and we were soon within sight of Mounts 
Ebal and Gerizim. On our right hand were pointed out to us two 
domed monuments on rising ground, one of them reputed to be the 
tomb of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, and the other that of Phinehas, 
Eleazar's son. So we read in the last verse of the book of Joshua : 
"Eleazar, the son of Aaron, died, and they buried him in a hill that 
pertained to Phinehas, his son, which was given him in Mount Ephraim." § 

*Gen. 12:6, 7. f Gen. 12:8. J Gen. 13 : 18. \ Josh. 24 :33. 



372 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



Both Jewish and Mohammedan traditions concur in fixing these sites, 
and there is no reason to dispute them. At the foot of Mount Gerizim 
we came to Jacob's Well, a little off the road to the right and fronting 
the valley that opens west from the plain and runs between Ebal and 
Gerizim, the valley in which the town of Nablous is situated. Close by 
the well our lunch tent was pitched, and here we rested and satisfied 
our hunger and drank of the excellent water of this famous well. Over 
it the Emperor Justinian once built a small church, which lay in ruins 
for ages and has but recently been excavated. Formerly visitors could 
see the well only by looking down through a hole in the roof of this 
ancient building. But we descended a flight of steps that had been laid 
bare, and passed through a door into a small vaulted chamber that in- 
closes the well and was a part of the church. Around the mouth of the 
well is a curb, and letting down a couple of candles to the water, whose 
surface was not more than twenty feet below on account of the reservoir 
being filled up by recent rains, we could see that the sides were regu- 
larly built up with blocks of stone and that the well was about eight or ten 
feet in diameter. Its depth is said to be seventy-five feet now, but- it was 
probably much deeper in our Lord's day as considerable rubbish has been 
thrown into it. 

This was to me one of the most interesting spots I visited in the 
Holy Land, because there is no doubt in regard to the genuineness of 
Jacob's Well. Jews, Samaritans, Mohammedans, and Christians are all 
agreed upon the identity of the site. While the features of the land- 
scape to-day fulfill the description that John gives of it in Christ's time. 
The Well is a natural resting place for one travelling on the highway 
from Jerusalem to Galilee, as Christ was then doing. It is ; ' near to the 
parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph ", * and that con- 
tains Joseph's tomb. All about lie the wheat fields,of which Christ said 
to his disciples, — " Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields ; for they 
are white already to harvest ".f On the southwest towers Mount Ger- 
izim, of which the woman of Samaria said to Jesus — " Our fathers wor- 
shipped in this mountain ". % And between Mounts Gerizim and Ebal 
one catches a glimpse of Nablous, the Old Testament Shechem and 
New Testament Sychem, generally believed to be the same as Sychar — 
whence the woman came and whither Jesus' disciples had gone to buy 
food. § (Though some think that the village of Askar nearer to the 
Well is the ancient Sychar). All these coincidences profoundly impress- 

*Johti4:5. f John 4:35. 1 John 4: 20. ^John4:7_ 8. 



JACOB'S WELL AND NAB LOUS. 173 

ed me with the truthfulness of the tradition, that this is the well on 
whose curb the wearied Jesus sat and talked with the Samaritan woman, 
about that living water which he would give the thirsty soul. * How ap- 
propriately was the discourse timed to the occasion and the hearer. But 
how well adapted to our own spiritual wants also we find it now. 

The earlier patriarchal associations of this Well, though less precious 
to us than those which connect it with our Savior, cannot be forgotten. 
To this place, where Abraham and Lot had once pitched their tents, 
and pastured their flocks and herds,! Jacob returning from the east 
with his wives and children and servants and possessions had come, and 
prudently " bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent, at 
the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred 
pieces of money." % Here he erected an altar to God ; § and here he 
dug his well, though in a region of springs and streams said to be 70 
in number, in order, probably, to be independent of his heathen neigh- 
bors, whose friendship was uncertain, and with whom his sons were 
soon at war, in consequence of which the family removed by divine di- 
rection to Bethel. || But the purchased land remained Jacob's, though 
he seems never to have returned to it himself ; and here several hun- 
dred years later the bones of Joseph, his favorite son, which the chil- 
dren of Israel brought up out of Egypt, were buried. IT 

We rode from the Well to Joseph's Tomb, about a third of a mile 
north. It stands in a little yard inclosed by a stone wall, and close to 
it is a small oblong stone mosque, that had become ruined and was re- 
stored by the English Consul at Damascus, about twenty-five years 
ago. The building, however, needs to be restored again, as it is some- 
what dilapidated. The Tomb looks like an ordinary Mohammedan 
tomb — an oblong of stones built up a couple of feet high, and two low 
pillars or slabs at the head and foot of the Tomb, whose hollowed tops 
are blackened by the burning of incense in them. Jews, Samaritans 
and Christians, as well as Mohammedans, believe this to be Joseph's 
burial place, and there is no reason to doubt it. Here where his light- 
hearted boyhood was spent, reposed at last the remains of the mighty 
statesman who had ruled Egypt so long, and whose venerated mummy 
had been carried about with them by the Israelites during their forty 
years' wandering in the wilderness. His last wish was gratified, his last 
command fulfilled : " God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up 
my bones from hence." * 

* John 4 :6-26. fGen. 12:6. tGen. 33:19. § Gen, 33 : 20. 

|| Gen. 35:1. \ Josh. 24:32. * Gen. 50: 25. 



*74 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



From Joseph's Tomb we rode back to the main road and gathered 
by the way some black lilies, which we then saw for the first time but 
afterwards saw frequently. They are a dark, rich, velvety purple with 
a black stamen, in shape like a calla lily. I wondered whether these 
might not be the lilies referred to by our Savior when he said: "Even 
Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." * Then 
we rode through the poor village of Askar, believed by some scholars 
rather than Nablous to be the ancient Sychar from which the woman 
came to draw water at Jacob's Well.f Probably in either case the rea- 
son why she went to this well to draw water instead of taking water 
from a stream, was that the well was in closer proximity to the fields, 
for whose laborers she was drawing water, and not for her household 
use. Some, however, think that the reason of her going so far was that 
she placed special value on the waters of the well because it was Jacob's 
Well, or because they were of superior coolness from the depth of the 
reservoir. 

Another mile brought us to Nablous — a corruption of the Greek 
name Neapolis, which means New City. The Italian Napoli or Naples 
is the same name. This is the modern successor of the city of Shechem, 
famous in Old Testament times. Hither came Joshua after the con- 
quest of Ai, and built an altar to the Lord in Mount EbaLJ and wrote 
upon the stones the law of Moses as the latter commanded ; § and sta- 
tioning half of the Israelites on Gerizim and the other half on Ebal, had 
them read aloud the blessings and the curses of the law. || So pure is 
the air and so close are the mountains together, but half a mile apart at 
their base, that they form a natural sounding board ; and persons can 
easily be heard speaking from the one mountain to the other, as has 
often been proved by tourists who have made the experiment. At 
Shechem Joshua in his old age assembled all the tribes of Israel, and se- 
cured from them a renewed promise of loyalty to the Lord, and set up a 
great stone as a memorial of this covenant. IT Shechem was noted also as 
the city that made Abimelech, Gideon's natural son, their king ; who slew 
all his seventy brethren but the youngest, Jotham, who escaped and stand- 
ing on Mount Gerizim shouted to the men of the city his parable about 
the bramble that was made king over the trees.* To Shechem, Reho- 
boam, the son of Solomon, went to be crowned king of Israel ; but re- 
turning a foolish and vain-glorious answer to the demands of the people 



*Matt. 6: 29. 
I! Josh. 8:33-35. 



t John 4 : 5-7, 
Josh. 24 : 1-27. 



X Josh. 8: 30. 

* Judges 9 : 1-20. 



§ Josh. 8 : 32* 



JACOBS WELL AND NABLOUS. 



i75 



voiced by Jeroboam, lost the allegiance of the Ten Tribes who revolt- 
ed and made Jeroboam their king. * The latter made Shechem his 
first capital, though he afterwards moved to Tirzah a few miles north. | 

The present city of Nablous contains 20,000 inhabitants, of whom 
19,000 are Mohammedans and the other thousand are Christians, 
Samaritans and Jews. It is the most fanatical place in Palestine, next 
to Hebron, and the people easily get excited against a company of 
Christians. Hence after we had passed the Turkish barracks, said to 
stand on the place where the Tabernacle was pitched when Joshua was 
here, we dismounted and walked quietly through the gate into the city. 
We were warned to keep together, and not to eat or smoke, as it was 
during the Fast of Ramadan, when for a whole month the Mohamme- 
dans do not eat, drink, or smoke from sunrise to sunset; and they would 
resent seeing a Christian do either. We walked without molestation 
through several streets of bazaars superior to those in Jerusalem, and 
filled with every variety of goods, and the streets were rather cleaner 
than those of Jerusalem, though built over in the same way by houses 
supported on arches. 

Then we climbed a hill to visit the Samaritan synagogue, where the 
remnant of the Samaritans, who are less than 200 in number, still wor- 
ship, and where the celebrated Samaritan Pentateuch is kept. The 
synagogue is a small room without seats, or other ecclesiastical furni- 
ture, and our party completely filled it. The High Priest of the Sama- 
ritans, who was a good-looking, black-bearded man of middle age, 
brought out from a recess at one side two very ancient rolls of the 
Pentateuch, perhaps 2,000 years old ; one of them in a bronze case 
chased with silver and gold representations of the Tabernacle • its Holy 
Place, the cherubim, the ark of the covenant, the golden candlestick, the 
table of show-bread, and the altar of burnt-offering. When we had 
sufficiently admired this, he exhibited to us in a silver case his treasure, 
the precious manuscript, which they claim was written by the grandson 
of Aaron, 3,560 years ago. The parchment is yellow and patched, the 
ink faded, the writing illegible, except to one who understands the Sama- 
ritan characters. The High Priest was very affable, and glad to sell us 
his photograph and to receive a fee, as his people are very poor. They 
accept of the Hebrew Scriptures only the Pentateuch ; and they still 
keep up the annual sacrifice of the Passover on the top of Mount Geri- 
zim, where they once had their temple, in opposition to the temple at 



*I Kings 12:1-20. 



f I Kings 12: 25 and 14: 17. 



176 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



Jerusalem. It was destroyed in the reign of Justinian, who built a fort- 
ress and a Christian church there, whose ruins remain to this day. 

From the Samaritan Synagogue we went up another street, and enter- 
ing a door passed through a garden of lemon-trees into a mosque, which 
incloses what they call Jacob's Tower. Here they say he received the 
news that Joseph was torn in pieces by wild beasts.* A low door opens 
from the mosque into the tower, but the latter bing full of water -we 
could not go in, and contented ourselves with laughing at the apochry- 
phal legend. We climbed the hill back of Nablous to get a fine -view of 
the city, and descended on the other side to our camp, that was pitched 
under a grove of olive-trees and near a Mohammedan cemetery. We 
thought this a very good place for the camp, as dead Mohammedans are 
much safer neighbors than living ones. 

While here we received a call from the Rev. Mr. El Karey, a native 
missionary laboring under the auspices of the English Baptists. He 
was converted by an American missionary in Jerusalem, studied in 
London, and has labored in Nablous twenty-seven years. He invited 
us to hold a religious service in his house in the evening, which we did, 
and he told us about his work, which is largely educational. At one 
time he had a hundred Mahometan girls in his school, but when they 
began to recite the Scriptures at home, and to sing hymns on the 
streets, the Mohammedan priests took the alarm, and made the parents 
take their children from the school. For a while the work was prac- 
tically broken up, but was gradually resumed. Now, for years, Mr. El 
Karey and his helpers have gone on very quietly. They have about 
thirty girls in school in the city, and a larger number of boys, and they 
have schools in neighboring villages. So even in this stronghold of 
Moslem fanaticism the good seed of gospel truth is being sown in the 
hearts of the rising generation, whose harvest we trust will yet be glorious. 

We regretted that we could not tarry in Nablous a day in order to 
climb Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, and see the interesting ruins on 
their summits, and the magnificent views they afford of a large part of 
Palestine. We should have liked also to have seen something of the in- 
dustries of Nablous, for it is one of the few places in the land that show 
any commercial activity ; surpassing Jerusalem in this respect, while it 
is next to Jerusalem in population. Thre are many oil-presses here, in 
which the oil is extracted from the olives, and twenty-five or thirty fac- 
tories where the oil is turned into soap, which is exported by the way 



*Gen. 37: 32, 33. 



JACOBS WELL AND NAB LOUS. 177 

of Jaffa. To this port there is a good carriage road from Nablous, fol- 
lowing a natural grade ; for the latter place is on the water-shed of the 
country east and west, some of its sparkling streams flowing into the 
river Jordan, and others into the Mediterranean Sea Doubtless in the 
coming development of the Holy Land this city will be one of its 
most flourishing business centres. 



12 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



Across the Plain of Jezreel. 

S ONE travels through the Holy Land north from Jerusalem 
there is felt an impatience to reach Nazareth and the interven- 
ing places made familiar by sacred story. But it is reckoned a 
four days' journey from Jerusalem to Nazareth, and so at Nablous we 
were but halfway; and as some of us sat in our camp-ground under 
the olive-trees that lovely evening after we had returned from the service 
at Rev. Mr. El Karey's house, and watched Mount Ebal bathed in the 
radiance of the full moon, we eagerly anticipated our start upon the 
morrow and confidently expected fine weather. But alas ! I was wakened 
about the middle of the night by the rain pouring down upon our tent, 
and it continued to rain steadily the remainder of the night. We were 
called at 5:45 a. m. and breakfasted gloomily at 6:30 ; discussing over 
our customary coffee, eggs, mutton, hard-baked bread, and potted jam, 
(for we always had the same breakfast,) the practicability of going on in 
this severe rain. Our guide fearing a repetition of our experiences in 
the mountains of Benjamin delayed preparations for departure, till about 
eight o'clock the rain slackened and the clouds began to break away, 
and he decided to make a start and ordered the tents to be taken 
down, while we stood about in the mud, chilled by the cold rain, and 
looking as bedraggled and unhappy as a brood of chickens shut out 
from their roosting-place on a wet day. 

We got off finally at 9.15, and proceeded along the carriage-road 
towards Jaffa for half a mile only, when to our disgust we turned off 
into one of those wretched and primitive paths that we seemed doomed 
to travel. It had been on our program to visit next Sebastiyeh, the 
modern Mohammedan village on the site of the ancient and renowned 
city of Samaria ; which was made the capital of the kingdom o f the Ten 
Tribes instead of Tirzah by Omri the father of Ahab. He bought the 




ACROSS THE PLAIN OF JEZREEL. 



179 



isolated hill four or five hundred feet high, on which he built the city, 
from one Shemer for two talents of silver, and called the name of the 
city from the name of the former owner, Samaria.* A host of Biblical 
associations invest this place with peculiar interest ; but we unfortunate- 
ly were obliged to give up visiting it on account of our delay by the rain 
and the muddy roads that we were certain to find. We had a long ride 
any way to Jenin, where we were to camp that night ; and we had not 
time to make the detour north-west to Samaria, but felt constrained to 
push on directly north by the shortest route. So we missed Samaria. 

Of course we should have seen nothing there of King Ahab's ivory 
palace, f nor of the great temple of Baal that he built to please Jezebel, 
his wicked queen % ; for in accordance with the predictions of Hosea § 
and Micah || the city of Samaria was taken and destroyed by the Assy- 
rians 721 B. C, when the people were carried away captive But it 
was rebuilt in the time of the Maccabees, and Herod the Great fortified 
and adorned it under the name of Sebaste, i. e. the August, which he 
gave to it in honor of the Roman emperor Augustus. Hence the mod- 
ern name of Sebastiyeh. Herod built a splendid temple here to Au- 
gustus, and a colonnade of stately marble pillars of which nearly a 
hundred remain in whole or in part on the hillside. These ruins are 
still much admired ; — as are also the ruins of a large marble church of 
St. John the Baptist, which the Crusaders built in the 12th century be- 
lieving that John was beheaded and buried here ; though Josephus lo- 
cates his martyrdom in the castle of Machaerus east of the Dead Sea. 

This part of the country is very fertile and highly cultivated and 
most beautiful in natural scenery • — " a land," as Moses describes it, 
" of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys 
and hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and 
pomegranates ; a land of oil-olive, and honey ; a land wherein thou 
shalt eat bread without scarceness." * We especially noticed the brooks, 
for they were swollen at our cost by several showers during the day ; 
though fortunately we did not have a continuous rain. Uphill and 
down we rode till 1:20 p. m., when we stopped to lunch by a spring of 
good water near the village of Jeba, whose houses well buiit of stone 
rise row above row on a hill-side. Caught here by another shower, we 
hastily mounted and splashed on through the long afternoon, till we 
climbed the high range of hills bordering on the south the great plain 



* I Kings 16: 24. 
|| Mic. 1 : 6. 



f I Kings 22:39. 
II Kings 18 :9~i2. 



% I Kings 16 : 32. 
* Deut. 8 : 7-9. 



I Hos. 13.16. 



i8o 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



of Jezreel or £sdraelon, as the Greeks called it. From this height a 
truly grand view opened to us. On our left we saw in the distance the 
plain of Dothan, still bearing the ancient name, which was the pasture- 
ground where Joseph found his unnatural brethren, and where they 
cast him into the pit from which they drew him out again to sell him 
to the Midianites.* There is still shown in the neighborhood a well or 
pit, that is claimed to be the one into which the poor boy was thrown. 
Around Dothan is a setting of green hills ; and to the west of these is 
the range of Carmel. While north stretches the plain of Esdraelon, the 
chief battle-field of Palestine since the earliest ages ; and beyond this 
the Galilean hills ; and then far to the north snowy Hermon, — now 
brilliantly white as the sun glanced upon its towering head, and anon 
shadowed as the sun again clouded in. 

From this point of observation we descended by a rough road into a 
gorge that led us down to the plain. For several miles we followed a 
brook, making a descent of perhaps a thousand feet ; till darkness in- 
closed us ; and still we slowly plodded on by the light of the twinkling 
stars, and to the music of myriads of croaking frogs that seemed to 
mock us from the brook. I remarked to a friend, — what a fortune a. 
few enterprising boys might gather there, if they could only find in Pal- 
estine a market for frogs' legs ! It was half-past seven o'clock when we 
reached camp just outside the town of Jenin on the edge of the plain; 
having been in the saddle nearly nine hours and ridden twenty-five 
miles. But we found no place to rest, since the mules that trans- 
ported the camp had been delayed like ourselves by the execrably bad 
roads, and the tents had not yet been put up. So we stood around 
disconsolately on the wet ground, and even the bonfire of bushes that 
was lighted to warm us up did not enliven our spirits. Not till nine 
o'clock did our accomplished cook succeed in serving us up our din- 
ner; and then we had no frogs' legs even for a side dish ! 

The town of Jenin occupies the site of the ancient Levitical city of 
Engannim, mentioned in the book of Joshua as belonging to the terri- 
tory of Issachar.f Engannim means the " Fountain of Gardens," and 
was well named, as there is a fountain here whose abundant stream 
runs through the town, and waters its gardens and fields, and makes 
green its olive-orchards and palm-trees and cactus-hedges. The mod- 
ern town contains several thousand inhabitants, bazaars, and a mosque 
with a tall minaret, from which the muezzin calls the hours of prayer. 



*Gen. 37 : 17-28. 



f Josh. 19 : 21. 



ACROSS THE PLAIN OF JEZREEL. 181 



He begins at sunrise ; but we were roused even before that, and after 
a hearty breakfast mounted for our ride across the plain to Nazareth. I 
have called this the great plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon ; i. e. great for 
Palestine, where plains are few, and most of the country is made up of 
mountains and deep, narrow valleys. Its extreme length is from four- 
teen to seventeen miles, and its shortest distance across is nine miles. 
Its size has made it the favorite meeting place of armies contesting for 
the mastery of the country, from the days ot the ancient Egyptian 
monarchs, — Thothmes III and Rameses II, — to the days of Napoleon 
I ; who marching m 1799 from Egypt by way of Jaffa, where he cruelly 
massacred his prisoners, fought here at the foot of Mount Tabor a bat- 
tle, in which with less than 3,000 Frenchmen he conquered 25,000 
Turks. Truly this black lava soil is rich with human blood. 

We found the plain smoother and drier travelling than we had had, 
though there were some very muddy places made by the recent rains, 
and we encountered a few more light showers during the day. Much 
of the plain is cultivated for wheat and other grain, as it is well watered 
by small brooks flowing down from the hills, which unite and form the 
river Kishon ; and the soil is exceedingly fertile. But the insecurity of 
the country has been such as to discourage agricultural operations. 
Now as in the days of Gideon the children of the desert cross the Jor- 
dan from the east in hordes with their camels and horses, and light like 
locusts upon these rich fields and eat up their substance, and carry 
away whatever booty they can find ; and the defenceless peasants ob- 
tain little protection from the wretched Turkish government, which in 
turn robs them of what is left under the forms of taxation. So between 
the upper millstone of Bedouin plunder and the lower millstone of gov- 
ernmental rapacity the poor people are ground down ; and there is no 
motive to extract the wealth of this inexhaustible soil. 

Riding northward six or seven miles across the plain to the miser- 
able village of Zerin, the ancient Jezreel, we had on our right the 
mountains of Gilboa, where Saul and Jonathan were slain in battle by 
the Philistines.* Zerin or Jezreel is situated on a hill about a hun- 
dred feet high jutting out into the plain as a spur from these moun- 
tains. And standing on that hill we probably looked down upon the 
scene of Saul's defeat. The historian says, that the Philistines had 
pitched their camp at Shunem three or four miles north ; and that 
Saul and the Israelites pitched in Gilboa, or more definitely " by a 

* I Sara. 31:2. 



i8js 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



fountain which is in Jezreel " * — the spring that we saw in the valley. 
When therefore the now fearing and God-forsaken Saul made his night- 
journey to Endor the night before the battle to consult the woman with 
a familiar spirit, f be had to pass the flank of the Philistines ; for Endor 
lies over two miles north-east from Shunem ; and he was m great dan- 
ger of being captured by the enemy. Meanwhile perhaps the Philis- 
tines moved southward to Aphek, { and cut off his retreat in that direc- 
tion. And so on the morrow the dispirited Saul and his army hemmed 
in between the steep mountains and the fierce Philistines were over- 
whelmed. Saul and his three sons, among them the chivalrous Jona- 
than, were slain ; and their bodies were fastened to the wall of Bethshan § 
— a city near the Jordan, now called Beisan, whose location was pointed 
to us eastward. But the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead on the other side 
of the Jordan, grateful for Saul's former' deliverance of them from the 
Ammonites, forded the river by night, and rescued the bodies, and 
gave them reverent burial at Jabesh. || 

It was by these fords near Bethshan that the Midianites and 
affiliated tribes crossed in the time of Gideon, and spread themselves 
over the great plain, and plundered the surrounding country ; "as grass- 
hoppers for multitude," If says the historian. Gideon, divinely com- 
missioned to overthrow them, encamped his little army by the well of 
Harod, identified with a spring that was shown us east of the hill on 
which we stood and west of Beisan ; while the Midianites were on the 
north side of the hill in the valley of Jezreel. * At this spring Gideon's 
army was sifted by repeated tests ; and it was given to the three hun- 
dred who lapped water to achieve by night that signal victory with lamps, 
pitchers, and trumpets which delivered Israel from the yoke of the 
Midianites. f 

But this locality is famous for still other events in the history of 
Israel. The city of Jezreel was made by king Ahab, whose capital was 
Samaria, the seat of his country-palace, his Versailles, where he spent 
much of his time and where he had gardens and groves. It was to en- 
large these that he desired the vineyard of Naboth ; which Jezebel his 
wife secured for him, when Naboth refused to sell it, by means of an 
infamous judicial murder.^ Of course the site of Naboth's vineyard was 
pointed out to us, and we stood we were told on the site of Ahab's 



*I Sam. 28 : 4 and 29 : 1. 
§ I Sam. 31 : 10. 
* Judges 7:1. 



1 1 Sam. 28 : 7-25. 
||I Sam. 31:11-13. 
t Judges 7 : 16-22. 



j I Sam. 29 : 1. 
\ Judges 6 :3-5. 
\ I Kings 21 : r-16, 



A CR OSS THE PL A IX OF JEZREEL. 



palace ; and then we saw the tower from which they say Jezebel was 
thrown down at Jehu's command, to be eaten by the dogs while Jehu 
was feasting within.* It is certainly a very ancient tower, but I was 
somewhat incredulous about its being the identical tower from which 
the painted old queen made her rapid and involuntary descent. 
Let it be noted however that the howling dogs of Jezreel to day appear 
hungry enough to be lineal descendants of those who devoured her 
majesty. 

Jehu, it will be remembered, slew two kings before he entered Jez- 
reel, viz : Joram the king of Israel, his master, and Ahaziah the king of 
Judah who had come to visit his cousin Joram. From the watch-tower 
it was reported to king Joram that a company was coming across the 
plain, and that the driving was like that of Jehu, "for", said the watch- 
man, " he driveth furiously." t The two kings went out in their chariots 
against him • and he smote them both — Ahaziah fleeing over the plain to 
Megiddo. where he died.^: Another far more worthy king was slain in 
this neighborhood, the good king Josiah. When long after the kingdom 
of the Ten Tribes had been overthrown, the Egyptian Pharaoh and his 
army were marching through the land to fight the Assyrians, Josiah 
rashly undertook to attack the Egyptians in this plain of Esdraelon. § 
Pharaoh sought by ambassadors to dissuade Josiah from war. and as- 
sured him that no harm was intended to him : but the impetuous young 
king would not be dissuaded, and rushed upon his fate. Josiah was 
slain in battle in the valley of Megiddo on the south-west side of the 
plain, and was carried back to Jerusalem, and buried amid great lamen- 
tations of his loving people. || 

Revolving these various memories of Jezreel and its vicinity we rode 
through the narrow streets lined with dirty hovels, and descended the 
hill on the north side near the so-called fountain of Jezebel. Another 
hour brought us to the village of Shunem near the base of the mountain 
Little Hermon. This was the place where the prophet Elisha found a 
kind hostess in that "great woman," >vho built for him a little chamber 
on the flat roof of her house, and furnished it simply but comfortably, 
that he might rest there as he passed to and fro through Shunem.* The 
touching story of her child's death and restoration to life by the prophet 
will readily be recalled. *[ The modern village is only a collection of 
poor huts built of rough stones and plastered over with mud, unspeak- 



* II Kings •) : 30-37. t II Kings 9: 17-20. in Kings 9 : 21-27. 5 II Chron. 35 : 20. 
II Chron. 35 -.21-24. r II Kings 4 : S-10. * II Kings 4 : 1S-37. 



1 84 A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

ably dirty and fit only for hog-pens, yet crowded with human beings. 
As our lunch-tent had not come up in time, and it was again raining, 
arrangements were made for us to eat lunch in the house of a chief 
man of the village. This was presumably the largest and best house 
there, but hardly better than a barn with us. We had to stoop low to 
enter the door, and found but a single apartment within. On one side 
of it was an elevated wooden floor j and on this our men spread a car- 
pet, and we sat down on it, and ate our usual hard boiled eggs, canned 
fish and cold chicken, bread and jam, nuts and oranges ; for our lunch 
like our breakfast was always the same but always excellent. How 
hungrily the inmates of the house and some of their friends who had come 
in watched us while we ate, and how glad they were to get the frag- 
ments of what seemed to them like a feast of the gods ! 

From Shunem we rode around the west end of Little Hermon to the 
village of Nain on the opposite or northern slope of the lofty hill, which 
is a great mass of basalt wild and bleak in appearance. This is another 
village of mud hovels ; but contains a small, neat Greek church, said to 
be built on the spot where Jesus restored to life the young man who 
was being carried out to his burial,* — " the only son of his mother, and 
she was a widow." No more tender and pathetic story adorns the gos- 
pels than this one. Nain was a little to the right of our direct route ; 
but we could not cross the plain of Jezreel directly towards Nazareth on 
account of the deep mud. So we bore away to Nain, and thence 
towards Mount Tabor which loomed up in the north ; and then near 
the base of the mountain turned again west, and took the road up the 
hill to Nazareth, — thus going four or five miles out of our way. This 
detour however took us over Napoleon's battle field already referred to, 
and gave us a good view of Mount Tabor — the traditional mountain of 
the Transfiguration. Modern scholars it is true discredit the tradition, 
and believe that wonderful event occurred in the extreme north of the 
Holy Land on Mount Hermon, which overlooks Caesarea Philippi. 
Yet one feels in looking at Mount Tabor, that if it was not the scene of 
the Transfiguration, it might fittingly have been; for it is of majestic 
height, 1500 feet above the plain — not a bare and desolate peak, but a 
graceful, wooded oval whose top forms a broad plateau. There are a 
Latin Convent on the summit and a Greek Convent, and extensive 
ruins of ancient churches and cloisters and of a fortress built in Cru- 
sading times. 



* Luke 7 : 11-15. 



ACROSS THE PLAIN OF JEZREEL. 185 



It was from Mount Tabor that Deborah and Barak with their 10,000 
men of Zebulun and Naphtali and representatives also of the tribes of 
Issachar. Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin rushed down upon the 
mighty host of Sisera with his nine hundred chariots of iron, and 
conquered them.* The forces of Sisera were drawn up in the plain; 
and so long as the plain was dry, it was a favorable place for the char- 
iots. But the sacred narrative seems to suggest, that Barak took ad- 
vantage of a heavy storm of rain, which turned the ground into a quag- 
mire and made the chariots useless ; and so Sisera's army was thrown 
into confusion, and was defeated. The river Kishon swollen by the 
rain became a flood, and swept the Canaanites away.f And Sisera, 
who fled on foot, was himself murdered by Jael, the wife of Heber the 
Kenite, in whose tent he sought refuge.^ Deborah's song of triumph 
after the victory declares that " the stars in their courses fought against 
Sisera ; " § — a poetical expression that would seem to mean, that the 
very forces of nature were turned against him. An interesting parallel 
might be traced in Napoleon's fatal invasion of Russia, when the in- 
tense cold and the heavy snow-storms proved more formidable foes to 
riim than opposing armies. Or in the Spanish Armada sent by Philip 
to reduce Protestant England, but which was wrecked and scattered 
by a violent gale before it reached the shores of England. So God has 
often used the elements of nature to thwart the impious schemes of 
the wicked, or to defend His people and His cause. 



* Judges 4 : 10-16. 



t Judges 5:21. 



X Judges 4 : 17-22. 



\ Judges 5 : 20. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Nazareth and Tiberias. 

ROM the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon we climbed a steep ascent 
of perhaps a thousand feet to the town of Nazareth, finding 
however a better road than we had been accustomed to ; one 
actually showing evidence that it had been constructed by human skill, 
instead of being trodden out by the hoofs of horses and mules as most 
Palestine roads are. The town is not situated on the ridge, and does 
not show from the plain below, but lies back within the hills in a basin 
and on a slope on which it is built like an amphitheatre. Our first view 
of it was prepossessing. It was larger and better built and more thrifty 
looking than any town we had seen since we left Jerusalem, with the 
exception of Nablous which contains about twice the population of 
Nazareth. But the latter has a newer, cleaner, more enterprising 
appearance than Nablous. Some fine stone buildings have been put 
up here by foreigners of late years. Among the more noticeable are a 
Latin Convent with a handsome church, a substantial Greek church, a 
Protestant church, and a building of the English " Society for Promot- 
ing Female Education in the East." As we approached the town we 
turned into a broad, smooth carriage-road that runs from Nazareth to 
Haifa, its port on the Mediterranean ; and we felt that we had struck 
civilization again. Considerable traffic passes over this road, as Naza- 
reth is the chief commercial town of Galilee, which we had now entered. 

As it was 5:30 p. m. when we arrived, and camp had not yet come 
up on account of the muddy roads, arrangements were made for us to 
stop at the Hotel Nazareth; that consisted of two small stone build- 
ings connected by wooden stair-cases, where we were packed in like 
sardines. Eleven of us men slept in one room that night, and the other 
rooms of the hotel were equally well filled ; but it was pleasant to have 
dry quarters at least, if we were somewhat crowded. And though our 




NAZARETH AND TIBERIAS. 



187 



dining-room was so small that only one-third of our party could get into 
it at one time, we were all served at last. A little inconvenience could 
readily be put up with, since we were delighted to be in the city so 
intimately associated with our Savior; where indeed He spent in 
obscurity and humble toil the greater part of His life, till at the age of 
thirty He entered upon His brief three years' ministry. Though Naza- 
reth is not named in the Old Testament, and was an insignificant and 
despised place in Jesus' day, it has ever since been invested with sacred- 
interest to all Christians. 

We visited the usual traditional sights of the town. First the Church 
of the Annunciation inclosed in the Latin Convent, and said to mark 
the home of the Virgin Mary. They call this the handsomest Latin 
church in Palestine ; it has a marble floor and marble wainscotings ; 
and the chapel in the North aisle that was furnished by the Emperor of 
Austria is quite gorgeous. We descended by a flight of marble steps 
into the crypt below the altar, and reached the chapel of the Annuncia- 
tion. Here under the altar is a circular tablet with the inscription, — 
u Hie verbum caro factum est" — i. e. Here the Word was made flesh. 
This is said to be the spot where the Virgin stood when she received 
the message of the Angel Gabriel. There is a broken stone column 
near by — not broken at the top, but broken off from its pedestal and 
hanging from the ceiling. This column, it is said, tried to follow the 
Angel Gabriel when he flew away; — which accounts for its position 1 
From this point they took us back into the Holy Grotto, and showed 
us the chamber and the kitchen of the Virgin ; all underground as were 
the apartments of the Holy Family in Bethlehem. 

Then we went to the Chapel of the Workshop of Joseph ; so called 
because it is said to mark the site of his workshop. A small portion of 
the wall is claimed to have belonged to the original building. We 
visited a chapel containing an immense block of stone called the Table 
of Christ, on which they say He ate with His disciples. We also visited 
a church represented to be on the site of the Jewish synagogue, where 
Christ preached the sermon that so excited His townsmen against Him, 
that they " led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was 
built, that they might cast Him down headlong." * And afterwards we 
climbed the steep streets, and saw what many believe to be the identical 
" brow of the hill " — a high cliff that overlooks most of the town, and is 
as perpendicular as a wall. Though the traditional Mount of Precipi- 



* Luke 4 :2g. 



1 88 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



tation is two miles distant from the city, near the road by which we had 
come in. But certainly the latter site cannot be reconciled with Luke's 
statement, that it was " the brow of the hill whereon their city was 
built." 

In fact all these traditions about sacred places in Nazareth are 
legendary and worthless. As regards the spot of the Annunciation e. g. 
the Greeks claim that it was not m the crypt of the Latin church, but 
where the so-called Fountain of the Virgin bursts from the ground, 
which they have inclosed in their own Church of the Annunciation. 
This is, to say the least, as likely as the other tradition. The water of 
the spring is conducted past the high altar of the Greek church and into 
a tank for the use of pilgrims, and then flows by a conduit to an arched 
stone recess without, where it spouts through the wall by metal spouts 
into a trough under the arch. This is the favorite water supply of 
Nazareth, whither the women resort to draw water and to talk over the 
gossip of the town. The Christian women do not wear veils but bright 
head-dresses, and are said to be the most beautiful and neatly clad 
women in Palestine. The Mohammedan women of course are veiled. 
There are no Jewesses nor Jews in Nazareth. 

Willingly one would linger in this secluded but pretty town among 
the hills, and picture to himself the homely, healthy life that Jesus lived 
riere for thirty years, during which He was known only as " the car- 
penter's son "* and as " the carpenter, the son of Mary."t Thought- 
ful, devout, and pure He was no doubt recognized to be ; but as yet no 
exhibition of His heavenly wisdom and divine power had been made. 
He was only offering that wonderful object-lesson of patient, contented 
toil and holy character in private life, which we so much need to ponder 
in these times of restlessness and itching for publicity. Does it not in- 
deed show a marvellous self-restraint upon His part, that He could for 
so many years await the divine call to teach, while religious perversions 
were current about Him, and the people were perishing for lack of 
knowledge ? 

But sorry as we were to leave Nazareth, we felt that we were follow- 
ing the footsteps of our Savior when we went down from this city- among 
the hills to the Sea of Galilee ; on whose shore once stood the highly 
privileged city of Capernaum, which Jesus made His headquarters after 
He had been rejected by His fellow-citizens of Nazareth. Matthew 
thus speaks of Capernaum as " His own city." % And Mark describes 



* Matt. 13:55. 



t Mark 6 13 



iMatt. 9 : 1. 



NAZARETH AND TIBERIAS. 



189 



Him as being there "at home."* It is not a long day's journey from 
Nazareth to Tiberias on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, where we 
were to camp for the night ; and though the morning was cloudy and 
threatening, we made our early start with eager anticipation and inter- 
est. We threaded our way through the poor streets of the town, and 
passed the Fountain of the Virgin, where in the early morning the 
women were already drawing water. Having descended a long hill we 
came to the village of Reineh, whither the women have to go for water 
when the Fountain of the Virgin fails. A little further on we saw upon 
a hill to the left the large village of Seffuneh, the ancient Sepphoris,. 
where tradition says that the Virgin Mary spent her childhood. Of this 
there is no proof; but Sepphoris was the capital of Galilee before Herod 
Antipas made his newly built city of Tiberias the capital; and here after 
the destruction of Jerusalem the Sanhedrim sojourned awhile, and 
made it the headquarters of Judaism. It is not mentioned in the New 
Testament, and as far as we know Jesus did not preach there. 

Riding on we saw on the top of another high, steep hill upon our 
left the site of ancient Gath-hepher, the birthplace of the prophet Jonah, 
and tradition says his burial-place also. Out of the ruins were growing 
tall trees. Next we came to the village Kefr Kenna, identified with 
the ancient Cana of Galilee, where Jesus wrought His first miracle at 
the marriage-feast by turning water into wine.f The village contains 
about 500 inhabitants, and is poorly built ; but in it we visited a Greek 
church, in which they showed us what they claimed to be some of the 
identical water-pots of stone used in the miracle ! The Latins, not to 
be outdone by the Greeks, profess that their church is built on the very 
spot where the miracle was performed. Strange to say, they did not 
show us the place where Jesus stood when He healed the nobleman's 
son who lay sick at Capernaum ; % nor the place where Nathanael, the 
Israelite in whom was no guile,§ was born ; — for he came from Cana in 
Galilee. || 

After passing Kefr Kenna we encountered rain, through which we 
rode over the plain of El-Buttauf, a fertile table-land in which wide 
level spaces alternate with low swells. Much of the land was unculti- 
vated, for the population m that region is sparse ; but beautiful wild 
flowers of every kind and hue were blooming along our path — eviden- 
cing a good soil. Early in the afternoon we approached a curiously 



t Mark 2 : 1. R. V. margin, 
f John 1 147. 



* John 2:1-11. 
X John 21 : 2. 



*John 4 : 46-54. 



igo A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

shaped hill having two peaks and a broad depression between, called 
Kurun Hattin or the Horns of Hattin, which the Latin tradition since 
the time of the Crusaders has pointed out as the Mount of Beatitudes. * 
From one of these horns or peaks, it is believed, Jesus came down with 
His disciples, and stood in the plain or depression between the peaks, 
and addressed to the multitude gathered there His famous sermon on 
the Mount. f The depression appears like the crater of an extinct vol- 
cano, set in a frame of rough crags and strewn with boulders and frag- 
ments of rock. The peaks of the hill are only about sixty feet high 
from their base, and one's first impression is that this could scarcely be 
called a mountain. But further observation shows its commanding po- 
sition with reference to the surrounding country, for there are no other 
heights in its vicinity ; and standing on this upland nearly 2,000 feet 
above the Sea of Galilee, it appears from the latter like a lofty detached 
mountain. It is easy of access on all sides j and might fittingly have 
been the scene of our Savior's remarkable discourse, which has been 
called " the Magna Charta of His heavenly kingdom, the counterpart of 
the Mosaic legislation from Mount Sinai." 

Another tradition makes the plain at the foot of this mountain the 
scene of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. More probably that event 
occurred on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. But an important bat- 
tle took place in this plain 700 years ago, which was one of the famous 
events of history. Here on the fifth of July, 1187, the Saracen Saladin 
defeated the Crusaders, and crushed the Christian kingdom of Jerusa- 
lem that had existed for eighty-eight years. For two days the bloody 
strife raged over these uplands, till at length by the Horns of Hattin 
the Crusaders headed by their king, Guy of Lusignan, and by the Grand 
Master of the Knights Templar, and the Bishop of Lydda bearing a 
relic of the Holy Cross, were overwhelmed by the superior numbers of 
the Saracens, and were cut to pieces or taken prisoners. The battle 
was followed by the conquest of Jerusalem and nearly all the other for- 
tified cities of Palestine ; and subsequent Crusades never succeeded in 
wresting the country again from the Moslem yoke. The Christian 
kingdom however deserved to perish. It had become weakened by 
dissensions and corrupted by vices and misrule ; its leaders but ruffianly 
adventurerers without principle or faith. The chivalrous Saladin was 
the executor of a righteous judgment upon them. 

We crossed the broad plain of Hattin, and came to the edge of the 



* Matt. 5:1. 



f Luke 6: 17. 



NAZARETH AND TIBERIAS. 191 

descent to the Sea of Galilee, of which we now caught our first glimpse. 
The rain had ceased, and the sun broke out from the clouds, illumining 
the peaceful landscape that contrasted so impressively with these recol- 
lections of Crusading warfare. Far below us to the east lay the lake, over 
twelve miles long and six or seven miles wide, whose surface is nearly 
700 feet lower than the Mediterranean Sea. It is shaped like a pear, 
with the broad end toward the north where the muddy Jordan flows into 
it, and the river passes out of it pure and clear at the south end. On 
the nearer or west side of the lake we saw the little city of Tiberias, 
whose ruined castle and walls, sadly shaken by the great earthquake of 
1837 that killed half the population, looked from this distance strong 
and formidable. Further up on the west side was the village of Mijdel, 
the ancient Magdala, once the home of the loving Mary Magdalene. 
These two are the only settlements remaining now of the nine flour- 
ishing towns and cities that clustered so thickly about the lake in the 
days of our Lord. The hills on the Western side approach almost to 
the water's edge, except that there is a narrow strip of land about two 
and a half miles long running south from Tiberias. On the northwest- 
ern side is the plain of Gennesaret three miles long and a mile wide. 
On the north and east sides there is also a strip of land of varying width 
between the water and the seamed and rugged hills that slope gently 
towards the lake. Comparing the scenery with that of the Dead Sea, 
one would say that the latter is much grander and more majestic ; while 
the setting of the Sea of Galilee is rather graceful and beautiful, and 
most charms the eye and the imagination of the beholder. 

I say, the imagination ; for after all it is not so much the natural fea- 
tures of this Sea of Galilee, or Sea of Tiberias, or Lake of Gennesaret 
— as it is variously called in the New Testament * — which excite the 
interest and admiration, as it is the association of our Savior with these 
sparkling waters and encircling shores. Our own lordly Hudson is a 
greater river and bordered by grander scenery than the river Rhine ; yet 
the castled crags and stately ruins of the latter wield upon the traveller 
a potent spell of history, poetry, and legend that is lacking in the 
former. So when one looks upon the Sea of Galilee, there is an over- 
powering rush of memories connected with our Savior's ministry there, 
which makes him feel that this is, as Dean Stanley says, " the most 
sacred sheet of water that this earth contains." Over its rippling sur- 
face Jesus sped upon many a gracious errand ; stilled its raging storm, f 



John 6:1, and Luke 5 : 1. 



t Matt. 8: 26. 



192 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



and trod its billows as upon firm ground.* Along its pebbly beach He 
walked, and called Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John from 
their employment as fishermen to be His disciples and fishers of men.t 
Sitting in one of their little ships He taught the people standing on the 
shore, and afterwards granted a miraculous draught of fishes to the toil- 
ing disciples.J From another ship He spoke to the multitude those 
marvellous parables of the sower, the wheat and the tares, the grain of 
mustard-seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, 
and the net cast into the sea. § On the east side of the lake He cast 
out from two men the demons, who caused the herd of swine to run 
down a steep place into the sea. || He miraculously fed here at one 
time the Five Thousand on five loaves and two fishes,H and again the 
Four Thousand on seven loaves and a few small fishes. * While at 
Capernaum, and Bethsaida, and Chorazin on the north shore were 
wrought many of His miracles, and many of His discourses were de- 
livered, f Truly a host of touching incidents in Jesus's ministry are as- 
sociated with this Sea of Galilee. 

Thinking over these things we descended from the edge of the table- 
land towards the town of Tiberias, that looked so near yet was three or 
four miles away in the deep basin below us. Our winding road led us 
down a succession of treeless but grassy slopes, on which flocks of sheep 
and goats were feeding ; and about the middle of the afternoon we en- 
tered the arched gate of the city, whose crumbling walls show the tooth 
of time. It is not nearly as large as it was in Roman days, for Roman 
ruins are found along the shore south of it ; nor is it a flourishing place, 
— decay and poverty are stamped upon it. But it is still one of the 
two holy cities of the Jews in Galilee ; the other being Safed, the city 
on a hill northwest of the lake, and supposed to have been alluded to 
by our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount, when He said, "A city that 
is set on an hill cannot be hid." % Similarly Jerusalem and Hebron are 
reckoned by the Jews their holy cities in Judea. It is a curious fact, 
that while there are no Jews now in Nazareth, more than half of the in- 
habitants of Tiberias are Jews, and that this is one of their sacred places. 
Curious, because when Herod Antipas built Tiberias, naming it in 
honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius, no strict Jew would live there 
nor even enter it ; for the reason that an old cemetery was laid bare in 



* John 6 : 19. 
§Matt. 13. 

* Mark 8 : 1-9. 



fMatt. 4 : 18-22. 
|| Matt. 8: 28-34. 
f Matt. 11 : 20-24 



J Luke 5: i-it. 
1[Mark 6 : 35-44. 
t Matt. 5 : 14- 



NAZARETH AND TIBERIAS. 



i93 



building the city, which was therefore reckoned denied. The place is 
mentioned only once in the gospels,* and then casually, — " there came 
other boats from Tiberias ; " and there is no record that Jesus ever 
visited it. But the Jewish prejudice against it seems to have been 
yielded when, after the destruction of Jerusalem, it became the refuge 
of the Sanhedrim, who removed thither from Sepphoris, and made it a 
seat of Rabbinical learning. And it is said the Jews believe, that when 
Messiah appears He will emerge from the waters of the lake, and land- 
ing at Tiberias will proceed to Safed, and there establish His throne on 
the highest summit in Galilee. 

As we walked through the dirty streets of the town, we saw many 
Jews with the cork-screw curls dangling on either cheek, the fur cap, 
and the long gabardine or loose frock, as we had seen them in Jerusalem. 
Their bazaars we found closed, since it was during the feast of the Pass- 
over ; a coincidence that Avould have embarrassed our commissary de- 
partment — the provisions that we brought with us having been spoiled 
by the wet — had not our caterer found the Mohammedan shops open 
where food could be purchased. We visited in the city an ancient 
Greek church close by the sea, said to have been erected by the em- 
press Helena, who built so many churches in the Holy Land. We saw 
also remains of the old sea-wall that once defended Tiberias from any 
possible attack on its lake side ; a wall rising out of the water in places, 
but elsewhere sunken and twisted, perhaps by the earthquake already 
referred to. 

Then we proceeded to our camp pitched outside the walls and 
south of the town, not far from the shore, where we were glad to take 
afternoon tea and to rest awhile ; after which half a dozen of us went 
bathing in the lake. The air was delightfully warm ; for the Sea of 
Galilee owing to its depression has, like the Dead Sea, a semi-tropical 
climate. And the water was delightfully cool ; not too cold, but just 
cool enough to make one enjoy the vigorous exercise of swimming in 
its pure, crystalline depths. One needs to keep swimming there, for 
the bottom is covered with large pebbles that are painful to step on. 
About a mile further south there are hot sulphur springs on the shore, 
which have been in use medicinally since Herod's day. They are con- 
ducted into a reservoir inclosed by a stone building, where people who 
suffer from various diseases plunge into the common bath. But it is 
rather too promiscuous a Bethesda to be patronized by Americans. 

* John 6: 23. 
13 



i 9 4 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



A. native fisherman came down to the shore, and illustrated for us 
the method of casting the net. Gathering its folds over one arm so that 
the leaden weights hung free, he threw it by a dexterous movement out 
into the water, where it immediately sank, while he retained hold of the 
cords by which to draw it in at the proper time. Probably this was the 
kind of net that Peter and Andrew were casting, when Jesus called them 
to become fishers of men ; for in the Holy Land everything is stereo- 
typed, and the same tools of trade and of agriculture are used now 
that were in use 1,900 years ago. The Sea of Galilee is reported to be 
full of fish, and perhaps its fisheries could support as many people now 
as in our Saviour's day when its shores were lined with cities and towns ; 
but the people are not there, and few boats now float upon this once busy 
sea, where Josephus could collect two hundred and thirty vessels of all 
sorts for military operations against the Romans. Fair Galilee has been 
stripped of its inhabitants, and lies empty and desolate — a camping 
ground of wandering Bedouins for the most part. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



Capernaum and Plain of Merom. 

EN we left Tiberias, it was a delightful change to go by water 
instead of land ; sending our tired horses on to Gennesaret in 
the charge of our attendants, while we " took shipping " and 
crossed the lake to the site of Capernaum on the north shore. The day 
was bright and warm, the air still, and we had the pleasantest weather 
experienced since we had left Jaffa. We were carried in four fishing- 
boats, each about twenty-five feet long, and fitted with a lateen sail and 
four long oars and a short deck both at bow and stern. There were four 
sailors in each boat — swarthy, healthy fellows — barefooted, and with legs 
bare to the knee — wearing baggy cotton breeches, striped shirts, sleeve- 
less jackets brilliant with all the colors of the rain-bow, and kefiyehs or 
turbans on their heads. They took turns at the long oars, two of them 
at a time, as there was no wind and the water was as smooth as glass. 
There was considerable rivalry between the crews of the different boats ; 
and the men in our boat worked as hard as though they were college- 
men rowing a race, spurting tremendously at times in their eagerness to 
forge ahead. It was terribly exhausting, for these heavy clumsy fishing- 
boats were never built for speed ; and it was quite unnecessary, as we 
passengers were not anxious to abridge our enjoyment of a row' upon 
historic Galilee, nor pleased to be splashed with water when frequently 
one of our men " caught a crab." But this they could not be made 
to understand, as they had no knowledge of English nor we of Arabic ; 
and so with expectations of large backsheesh they frantically toiled on, 
and brought in our boat on the other' side ahead of all competitors. 

We landed at Tell Hum, about six or seven miles from Tiberias, and 
two and a half miles west of the entrance of the Jordan into the lake. 
While we were waiting for the later boats to arrive, we had opportunity 
to survey the landscape. On the north-east side of the lake was point- 



196 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



ed out to us the plain on which Jesus fed the five thousand. On the 
east side the country of the Gadarenes; and near a village called 
Khersa, identified with the ancient Gergesa, the steep place where the 
swine "ran violently down into the sea, and were choked in the sea." * 
Southward we looked down the length of the lake, now rippling under 
a gentle breeze. On the west side stood the town of Tiberias whence 
we had come, and to the north of it on the same side the wretched 
hamlet of Mijdel or Magdala. Behind Magdala we saw the Wady 
Hamam or Valley of the Pigeons, so-called because vast numbers of 
these birds nest in the caves found in the steep sides of the valley. 
These caves were in the early days of Herod the Great the fortified and 
inaccessible retreat of Jewish zealots, who robbed and terrorized the 
country. They could not be reached from below, as the cliffs were per- 
pendicular ; but Herod let his soldiers down from above in iron-bound 
cages, and pulled the zealots out with hooks or suffocated them with 
smoke. Above the Wady towered the Mount of Beatitudes or the 
Horns of Hattin, looking majestic from this point. North of Magdala 
we saw the plain of Gennesaret, and between it and ourselves the sup- 
posed site of Bethsaida. Beyond us at the extreme north end of the 
lake the Jordan flows in through a flat, marshy plain ; while far in the 
dim distance appears the snowy top of Mount Hermon, the most con- 
spicuous mountain in Palestine and Syria. 

Tell Hum is believed by many scholars to be the site of the ancient 
Capernaum ; while others believe that the site is to be found at Khan 
Minyeh, at the north end of the plain of Gennesaret. It is a hotly dis- 
puted question, over which the best authorities are divided. At Tell 
Hum there are extensive ruins of black basalt, scattered from the 
water's edge up a gentle slope for half a mile back, and overgrown with 
weeds and oleanders. Near the shore are the remains of a large and 
splendid building of white limestone, consisting of broken columns with 
Corinthian capitals, and squared and sculptured stones that must have 
been the friezes and cornices of a synagogue; for upon one block is en- 
graved a pot of manna. If this is the site of Capernaum, these are 
probably the ruins of the synagogue which the pious centurion built be- 
cause he loved the nation of Israeif And the emblem of the pot of 
manna over the main entrance may have suggested that inquiry of the 
people for a sign and the answering discourse of Jesus about the bread 
of life, recorded in the sixth chapter of John's gospel.J Judging from 



* Mark 5: 13. 



flvuke 7 12-5. 



% John 6: 30-33, et seq. 



CAPERNA UM AND PLAIN OF MER OM. 197 



the position of several bases of columns that remain in situ, an ob- 
server thinks that the building must have been 75 feet long and two- 
thirds as wide. 

One theory makes Tell Hum the site of ancient Chorazin, which our 
Savior joined with Bethsaida and Capernaum in denunciation of their 
failure to repent despite His mighty works done in them.* But Cho- 
razin is more plausibly identified with a place called Kerazeh, two or 
three miles north of Tell Hum, where there are similarly extensive 
ruins. Many of the dwelling houses are partly preserved ; their thick 
walls of basalt or lava, in some cases six feet high, showing the shape 
and size of the houses. And there are the sculptured remains of a syna- 
gogue built of the same material. 

Reentering our boats at Tell Hum, we sailed westward a mile and a 
half to the little bay of Et Tabighah, where a stream gathering the 
waters of five fountains furnishes power to an old stone mill. There 
are remains indicating that once a reservoir here raised the surface of 
the waters twenty feet, and that an aqueduct conducted them to the 
plain of Gennesaret, which they irrigated. This is believed by some to 
"be the fountain of Capharnaum mentioned by Josephus as watering the 
plain; and hence is drawn a confirmation of the theory, that Tell Hum 
is the ancient Capernaum. Others think Et Tabighah to be the Beth- 
saida of the gospels, i. e. the western Bethsaida; the other Bethsaida 
being east of the Jordan. We did not stop here ; but rowed on to a 
little cove a mile or so beyond, where we landed, and to avoid the 
marsh climbed a low rocky hill, where we found what seemed an old 
Roman path cut in the solid rock, but is claimed by some to have been 
the aqueduct just referred to. This cut led us out to Khan Minyeh at 
the north end of the plain of Gennesaret, where our luncheon-tent was 
pitched near the fountain called Ain Et Tin. The Khan is ruined now, 
but was once a place of refreshment for travellers between Tiberias and 
Damascus. 

This is believed by many, as I said, to be the site of Capernaum. 
We saw no ruins there to mark a city, but excavations have been made 
in some mounds, which have brought to light cut stones and fragments 
of pottery. The location, where a Roman road came down from the 
north, would naturally call for a Roman garrison and a Roman custom- 
house here, which we know existed in Capernaum of old; and hence a 
strong argument has been constructed, that this Khan Minyeh rather 



* Matt. 11: 20-24, 



A DO MINE IN BIB IE BANDS. 



than Tell Hum is the ancient Capernaum. But if so, how completely 
has our Lord's prophecy of its humiliation and desolation been fulfilled. 
The great city has disappeared with its busy throngs, its caravans of 
commerce, its shipping, its trades, its public buildings, its defences, and 
has left no wreck behind. Once exalted unto heaven, it has been 
brought down to hell ; * its very location lost in obscurity and forgetful- 
ness. 

After a long nooning here we mounted our horses, which had been 
brought around by the road from Tiberias, and proceeded leisurely four 
miles north to the Khan Jubb Yusef, or Khan of Joseph's Well, where 
we were to camp for the night. It had been very hot m the low ground 
on the lake shore at Minyeh, but as we began to climb the hills of Naphtali 
we found a delightfully cool breeze. The road was only a bridle-path, 
where we had to pick our way over the stones, and the country was 
treeless and destitute of human habitations so far as we could see, yet 
here and there cultivated. From each new elevation we caught another 
charming view of the Sea of Galilee, till we reached the Khan Yusef ; 
so called because the Mohammedans claim that this is the place, rather 
than at Dothan, where Joseph was cast into the pit by his brethren. 
The camp was pitched by a stream very near the Khan, which is a 
large rectangular stone building, with an open space for beasts and 
chambers built for travellers around the sides within. Looking through 
the arched entrance, I saw a dead camel lying in the court-yard, and 
did not care to pursue my investigations any further into the mysteries 
of the Khan. 

But I climbed to the top of a hill east of the Khan, and had a su- 
perb view of the Sea of Galilee, the mountains of Tabor and Little 
Hermon and the Horns of Hattin west of the sea, and the mountains 
of Bashan east, and matchless Hermon in the north. With regret I 
thought that we were now about to leave behind us the localities so hallowed 
by our Savior's presence, that seem still to echo and emphasize His 
teachings. He had seemed so near to us by that crystal sea ; so much 
nearer than in Jerusalem or Nazareth, despite all the asserted memo- 
rials of Him in those places. But doubtful traditions made everything 
there seem legendary to me; while here the lake itself was an indis- 
putable memorial, and its shores were witnesses to Him that, if they 
could break their silence, could speak to us of His wonderful words and 
deeds. We were going away from the region where Jesus was most at 



* Matt, ii : 23. 



CAPERNA UM AND PLAIN OF MER OM. 1 9 9 



home • would He ever seem so near elsewhere ? Faith answered, yes, 
He surely would ; for as Whittier beautifully says, — 

We may not climb the heavenly steeps 

To bring the I^ord Christ down; 
In vain we search the lowest deeps, 

For Him no depths can drown. 

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet 

A present help is He; 
And faith has still its Olivet, 

And love its Galilee. 

The healing of the seamless dress 

Is by our beds of pain ; 
We touch Him in life's throng and press, 

And we are whole again. 

Through Him the first fond prayers are said 

Our lips of childhood frame ; 
The last low whispers of our dead 

Are burdened with His name. 

So I felt that we might enjoy a present Savior upon our further trav- 
els as well as in the vicinity of this lovely lake, where He spent so much 
of His time. Going northward indeed we were to follow His footsteps 
to Caesarea Philippi, which He once visited ; though perhaps He may 
have made the journey thither from Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee by 
the route east of the Jordan, while we travelled on the west side, not 
near enough the river to see it from any point as we rode among the 
hills. From the Khan Jubb Yusef, where we spent a restful night, we 
started early in the cool and cloudy morning, which treated us to a 
slight drizzle for a few minutes but soon gave us welcome sunshine. By 
a rough, stony path we ascended a long slope, from whose summit we 
saw several miles ahead of us Lake Huleh, or the waters of Merom as 
it is called in the book of Joshua.* This sheet of water is not nearly 
as large or deep as the Sea of Galilee, being only four and a half miles 
long, three and a half miles wide, and from ten to twenty feet deep. A. 
great marsh stretches for nearly six miles north of it, through which flow 
the Jordan and other tributary streams into the lake ; which is triangular 
in shape with the apex towards the south, where the Jordan flows out 
again. Its elevation is at least 900 feet above that of the Sea of 
Galilee ; hence considerably higher than the level of the Mediterranean. 
We saw it inclosed on the east side by a range of gently sloping hills 

* Josh. 11 : 5. 



200 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



covered with verdure ; and between the lake and the loftier hills of 
Naphtali on the west there was a broad cultivated plain, that contrasted 
pleasantly with the wilderness about us. Turning our horses around, 
we could see from this height the glassy Sea of Galilee, that we had left 
far to the south; — our last view of the beautiful lake that so charmed 
us being thus connected with our first view of another lake, which 
though less interesting in its associations is scarcely inferior in natural 
beauty. 

From the high ground we steadily descended toward the plain. But 
we had to make a considerable detour along the sides of the hills west- 
ward to avoid the muddy sloughs in the low ground, for the plain was 
very wet and soft at that time ; and we seemed to circle around all the 
morning without getting much nearer to the lake. At length we passed 
certain mounds, that are said to be the ruins of the ancient city of 
Hazor • whose king, Jabin, formed a confederacy of all the kings in the 
northern part of Canaan and some others to fight against Joshua and the 
Israelites.* The latter had already conquered a similar league in the 
south of Canaan, and followed up their decisive victory by capturing the 
principal cities and putting all their inhabitants to the sword, f And 
now the alarmed Canaanites made their last united and formidable 
effort to repel this invasion of their land. They came from the extreme 
north, from the east, from the west, and some from the central part of 
the country — a great host, as the chronicler says, " even as the sand 
that is upon the sea-shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very 
many " % — and they pitched together by these Waters of Merom. The 
plain offered a favorable place for the movement of the chariots, which 
could not be brought into action among the hills. But Joshua with his 
invincible infantry fell suddenly upon them, and in accordance with the 
Lord's promise utterly overthrew the mighty host, and chased them over 
the mountains to Zidon.§ He houghed their horses, and burned 
their chariots, and took the city of Hazor which he burnt with fire, and 
slew all its inhabitants. || The result of this overwhelming victory was, 
that the whole land fell into the possession of the Israelites. 1" 

Bat it would seem that the Canaanites here as in other parts of the 
country were not exterminated, though vast numbers of them were 
slain. They afterwards rebuilded Hazor, and regained strength so that 
a hundred and fifty years later there was another " Jabin king of Canaan, 



* Josh, ii : 1-3. 
2 Josh. 11:7, 8. 



f Josh. 10. 

|| Josh. 11:9-11. 



% Josh. 11 :4. 
Josh. 11 : 16, 17. 



CAPER IV A UM AND PLAIN OF MEROM. 



20I 



that reigned in Hazor, the captain of whose host was Sisera; * * * 
and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel." * From 
him the Lord gave deliverance through Deborah the prophetess and 
Barak, whose defeat of Sisera at the foot of Mount Tabor has already 
been referred to. Barak came from Kadesh, a city whose ruins lie 
about four miles northwest of Lake Huleh; and his little army was 
drawn mostly from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun in this part of 
the land;f so tnat both general and soldiers had personally felt the 
yoke of Canaanitish oppression, and would fight the more determinedly 
to throw it off. 

We rode on from the supposed site of Hazor across the plain, till we 
came to the fountain known as 'Ain el Mellahah, where we made our 
mid-day halt, and lunched. From this fountain a considerable stream 
forty or fifty feet in width flows into the lake, and a rich vegetation 
fringes the stream. We took a long rest here to give the men and mules 
transporting our camp a chance to precede us to the camping-ground, 
and to get our tents in readiness for us. Then we proceeded through 
the plain, which was not flat but rolling ; here green with crops, and 
there dotted with flocks and herds feeding upon the abundant pasture ; 
yonder, the sleeping lake bordered by beds of reeds and rushes, that 
grow luxuriantly in the marshy soil; on either side the protecting hills ; 
and above all the bright blue sky, of which we had seen so painfully little 
in Palestine. All that was wanting was trees; and when a turn in the 
road brought us in sight of a dozen large oak trees, we were so delighted 
that we galloped to the spot, and cut off twigs and switches to adorn 
our horses' bridles. These oaks were growing near a fountain called 
'Ain Belat, a favorite camping-ground of tourists ; and no wonder, for 
such fine trees are exceedingly ^are in the Holy Land, where all the 
wood has been cut down for fuel, and the peasants even grub up the 
roots, and use thorns and bushes and weeds to burn. But these oaks 
are fortunately regarded as sacred trees, and so the ignorant and super- 
stitious natives dare not fell them. 

We found the plain very populous, though the population is mostly 
migratory; being composed of Bedouins, who come in great numbers 
from their haunts east of the Jordan, bringing with them their flocks 
and herds of sleek cattle, and pitch their tents covered with black 
goats' hair-cloth on this pasture -ground. They also sow their fields of 
wheat here ; and when they have gathered their crop and exhausted 



* Judges 4 -.2, 3. 



f Judges 4:6. 



202 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



their pasture, they move on. I had no idea there were so many of 
them in the land as we saw in this plain of Merom. Their low black 
tents clustered in villages at every favorable point. There are also some 
Arabs who are permanently settled here ; whose stone cow-houses built 
on the slopes of the hills look as though they took better care of their 
cattle than of their families ; for their own houses are made of woven 
mats of reeds hung against a framework of poles, and can afford but 
slight protection from the rains even when roofed, as some of them are, 
with tent-cloth. But they are a hardy race, inured to privations ; and 
thrive upon a scanty diet and a lack of clothing and shelter that would 
prove fatal to our people. 

They watched us with eager eyes as we rode by their numerous en- 
campments, and looked as though they longed to rob us. But we were 
rather too many for them to attack us, and our dragomen with revolvers 
conspicuously displayed in their belts rode up and down our line to 
overawe them. So they ventured no further than to cry for backsheesh, 
and to snatch at our horses' bridles to try to frighten us into compli- 
ance with their demands. We safely gained our camp at the upper 
end of the plain, pitched close by two springs of deliciously pure water ; 
and found our men still at work making up beds and distributing lug- 
gage. We soon had the welcome refreshment of afternoon-tea, and 
then rested our limbs stiffened with the twenty-four miles' ride, till din- 
ner was served at 7 : 30 p. m. 

After dinner a company of the Bedouins came in a friendly way and 
gathered about our camp-fire of thorns, and executed their Bedouin love- 
dance and war-dance. In the former they made a circle joining hands,, 
and chanted, and took regular steps following one another around in 
the circle. It was a slow but rather a graceful dance. In the war- 
dance they stood in a line and kept time by clapping hands, shouting 
•at intervals and bowing their bodies, while two young girls with very 
long swords danced before them, and brandished the swords, — a weird 
and curious performance. At length our fire burned out, and they ac- 
cepted their backsheesh and went away. We retired to bed, not with- 
out apprehensions of danger from the proximity of so many hundreds 
of these wild, lawless children of the desert. We were really defence- 
less ; there were not more than half a dozen revolvers in camp ; how easily 
might these Bedouins kill our whole company ! But we had nothing to 
fear from them ; our guards stationed about the tents were not dis- 
turbed during the night, and we slept peacefully. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



C^SAREA PHILIPPI. 



JJf?T WAS with gentler and more charitable views of our Bedouin 
< Up neighbors that we took an early start next morning with a fair 
sky, which soon clouded however, and we had a couple of showers 
before noon, but a clear afternoon. We first rode northward, and com- 
passed the low range of hills near which we had camped, till we saw 
before us the village of Abil — called in David's time Abel of Beth- 
maachah. This was the town to which Joab and his mighty men pur- 
sued Sheba a Benjamite, who had started a revolt against king David, 
when the latter was returning to his kingdom after the defeat of Absa- 
lom.* Joab was battering the town-wall to throw it down, when a wise 
woman of the city called him to a parley, and remonstrated with him. 
Joab promised to spare the city, if Sheba only were delivered up ; and 
the wise woman said, that his head should be thrown over the wall. 
This was done, and the incipient revolt was ended ; and Joab returned 
to Jerusalem to the king.j An impressive illustration this of woman's 
power in the Hebrew commonwealth ; that a woman should be in such 
repute for wisdom as to make two armies listen to her advice ; that the 
one army should spare her city, and that the other should cut off the 
head of their own leader in testimony that they abandoned the contest ! 

At this point where we saw the village of Abil we turned to the 
right, and went eastward through the plain, which here attains greater 
altitude. But we found many muddy sloughs, and much of the way 
was exceedingly stony and rough. Presently we came to the rapid 
river Hasbiyah or Hasbany, a branch of the Jordan, which rises in the 
distant valleys of Lebanon ; and we crossed it by an old Roman bridge 
of three arches, above which but a single row of great stone blocks 
remains, so that our horses had to go in single file and step carefully irr 



*II Sam. 20 : 1-14. 



f II Sam. 20 : 15-22. 



2o 4 A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 

crossing the bridge. It must once have been a solid and massive struc- 
ture ; but it is now crumbling, for the Turks never make repairs. On 
the east side of the stream we followed the remains of an old Roman 
road, the high-road to Damascus, over which doubtless Paul travelled 
in his heat when he went thither from Jerusalem to persecute the Chris- 
tians.* Probably then it was a fine stone pavement ; but it is now a 
confused mass of stones as rough as the bed of a mountain-torrent ; for 
the Turks no more think of repairing roads than they do of repairing 
bridges. 

A short ride over the undulating plain brought us to Tell-el- 
Kadi or the Mound of the Judge, the site of ancient Dan, which was 
the northernmost city of the Israelites in Old Testament times as Beer- 
sheba was the southernmost. Hence the proverbial expression so often 
used in the Old Testament to describe the whole extent of the country, 
— " from Dan to Beersheba." f How the tribe of Dan came into pos- 
session of this locality, so far distant from their assigned territory in the 
southwest of Canaan, that bordered on the Mediterranean Sea, is told 
at length in the eighteenth chapter of Judges. Crowded by their Phil- 
istine neighbors they had not room enough, and sent five men north- 
ward to spy out the land. These men found here in the extreme north 
a city called Laish, inhabited by a colony of Zidonians, who " dwelt 
carelessly, quiet and secure," isolated from their mother-country and 
having no commerce with anybody. The spies returned, and reported 
the richness of the country to their tribe, who thereupon sent a force of 
six hundred armed men against it. These men, having upon the way 
robbed Micah of his gods and his priest, smote the inhabitants of 
Laish, burned the city, and built one of their own which they called 
Dan. Here they set up Micah's images, and his priest Jonathan and 
his sons became the priests of these Danites. It was a period of law- 
lessness and moral and religious degeneracy between the days of Joshua 
and those of Samuel, when, as the historian says, " every man did that 
which was right in his own eyes." t 

This city of Laish is mentioned however under the name of Dan by 
way of anticipation in the book of Genesis. To this place Abraham 
with his trained servants and Amorite confederates pursued Chedor- 
laomer and his allied kings, who had made a descent upon Sodom and 
Gomorrah, and plundered them, and also carried away captive Lot and 



* Acts 9:1, 2. 
J Judges 17 : 6. 



f Judges 20:1; I Sam. 3:20; II Sam. 3 : 10 aud 24:2. 



CAiSAREA PHILIPPL 



205 



his goods.* The peaceful old patriarch showed himself a brave and 
vigorous soldier in this his only warlike expedition. Making a forced 
march of some one hundred and twenty-five miles, he came upon the 
enemy by night in this region afterwards known as Dan ; and smote the 
host, and pursued them nearly to Damascus. He recovered his nephew Lot 
and all the captives and the booty, and returned in triumph to Salem or 
Jerusalem, where the king of Sodom gratefully met him.f 

Nothing now remains of the city of Dan but mounds fringed with 
thickets of briers and oleanders and myrtle-trees, through which we rode 
till we saw a stream of clear and sparkling water issuing out of the 
bushes and flowing under two great oaks. This is called the Fountain 
of the Jordan, and is one of the three principal sources of the river ; 
the other two being the Hasbiyah already mentioned and the fountain 
at Banias, that will be presently described. The whole region is indeed 
full of springs and streams that contribute to Lake Huleh and the Jor- 
dan, but these are the chief. We forded the swiftly rushing brook, and 
rode up to the top of the mound, perhaps thirty or forty feet above the 
plain. Where we stood our guide supposed that king Jeroboam erected 
the golden calf as a symbol of divinity, to keep his people from 
going to Jerusalem to worship in the temple ; for it will be remembered 
that he made two golden calves, and set the one in Bethel and the other 
here in Dan — the two extremities of the territory of the Ten Tribes.^ 
There is a Moslem tomb now on that side of the mound under the 
larger oak, and we noticed that on the limbs of the tree hung many 
strips and bits of colored cloth. Inquiring how they came there, we 
were told that the Moslems regard these trees as sacred on account of 
their antiquity, and will not allow them to be cut down ; but if one of 
their people is sick, they hang a bit of his dress on the tree, expecting 
that then he will get well ! 

An hour's ride east of Dan brought us to the modern town of Banias, 
the ancient Caesarea Philippi. After we had crossed the plain in which 
Dan is situated, we reached higher ground, where trees began to ap- 
pear—dwarf oaks, and myrtle-trees, and wild lemon-trees whose white 
blossoms were very fragrant and beautiful. It was like riding through 
a park, and the more delightful to us because we had travelled so long 
through treeless and desolate regions. Our path led us over a smooth 
sward instead of horrible rocks or bottomless pits of mud, and we rode 
the faster though making an ascent of about 500 feet; for Banias lies 



*Gen. 14: 13-24. 



f Gen. T4: 1-12. 



J I Kings 12: 26-30. 



2o6 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



1,100 feet above the sea. Just before reaching the town we turned to 
our left," and entered a large olive-grove, where our lunch-tent was 
pitched, and where the air was filled with the musical sound of dashing 
waters, and the grounds were adorned -with rich dark purple lilies. It 
seemed an ideal spot in which to camp and rest awhile ; nothing to mar 
our pleasure but the usual shower of rain • for in this our last stopping 
place in Palestine the rain, which had gone everywhere with us, shed 
upon us a parting benediction. 

After lunch we walked to the Fountain of Banias, the main source of 
the Jordan, which issues from under a rocky cliff nearly a hundred feet 
high. Near this fountain Herod the Great built a temple in honor of 
the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar ; and as we walked through the glen 
we saw a piece of the mosaic pavement of the temple overhanging the 
rock above us, and a small mosque on a terrace still higher. Guided by 
the sound of rushing waters, we came to a spot of romantic beauty. 
There was a large grotto hollowed out in the side of the perpendicular 
wall by the removal of stone at some ancient period, when this cave 
was made sacred to the heathen god Pan ; and three arched recesses or 
niches besides were carved in the face of the rock, looking not unlike the 
monumental tablets set in the inner walls of some of our modern 
churches. These were evidently shrines, where statues of divinities 
were once placed for worship. Below these was a confused mass of 
rocks overgrown with vegetation; the debris probably that has fallen 
from the cliff above, or perhaps the ruins of an ancient temple ; and a 
little distance further the river rushed out of the earth from under these 
rocks. It is a river thus at its birth, nearly a hundred feet wide ; com- 
ing no one knows whence, somewhere from the depths under Mount 
Hermon. It reminded me of the classic myth of Minerva, who was 
said to have sprung fully formed and completely armed from the brain 
of Jupiter. 

From very early times, it would seem, this charming dell was regarded 
as a haunt of deities, and was a seat of heathen worship. Banias is 
believed to have been the place several times mentioned in the book of 
Joshua as Baal-gad, the northern boundary of Joshua's victories. He 
took all the land, we are told, "from the mount Halak that goeth up to 
Seir even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Her- 
mon." * And the name Baal -gad indicates that the place was then 
devoted to the worship of Baal. Its later Greek name, Paneas or 



* Josh, ii : 17. See also 12:7. 



CAESAREA PHILIP PL 



207 



Panium, seems to have been derived from the god Pan, whose sanctu- 
ary was here. In Roman times Philip the Tetrarch of Trachonitis 
enlarged the town, and beautified it with palaces and temples, and 
called it Caesarea Philippi, in honor of the. emperor and in distinction 
from the other Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast. But later it 
reverted to the old name of Paneas — in modern times Banias ; so that 
its traditional associations with heathen worship are to this day pre- 
served in the name. 

There are many traces of the Roman occupation to be found at 
Banias. Scattered about it and in its neighborhood are blocks of 
dressed stone, fragments of carving, pieces of broken columns, ruins of 
old arches, — that indicate a former city much larger than the present 
town. We walked from the fountain to view a portion of the old wall 
and tower that once defended the main entrance into the city. The 
road crossed and still crosses the river by a stone bridge of Roman con- 
struction, and passes through this piece of wall by an old Roman gate 
into the city. By this same road, over this bridge, and through this 
gate no doubt the persecuting Saul of Tarsus came into Caesarea Phi- 
lippi on his way to Damascus. Some of us climbed up the stone stairs 
inside the wall, which once led to the usual chamber over the gate, 
where the watchman sat. To such a chamber over the gate of Maha- 
naim David, who had awaited below news of the result of the battle 
with Absalom, went up after he had received the sad tidings of Absa- 
lom's death ; and wept as he went up, exclaiming, " Would God I had 
died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son ! " * 

Our Savior once visited the neighborhood of this city; Matthew says, 
He "came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi f and Mark says 
"into the towns of Caesarea Philippi ;" £ but it is doubtful whether He 
entered the city itself. However, His visit here really marked an epoch 
in His ministry, and was connected with the foundation of His church 
as a society distinct from the existing theocracy of the Jews. For here, 
far removed from all the priestly influences of Judaism, He evoked 
from His disciples the open and full confession, that He was " the 
Christ, the Son of the living God;" and declared that upon this con- 
fession as upon a rock He would build His church. § From that time, 
the evangelist tells us. He began to teach His disciples about the suf- 
ferings He should undergo at Jerusalem, about His violent death and 



* II Sam. 18 : 33. 
{Mark 8:27. 



fMatt. 16: 13. 
§ Matt. 16:13-19. 



208 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



resurrection on the third day; and about the necessity of cross-bearing, 
self-denial, and devoted loyalty to Him on the part of those who would 
be His disciples.* While by way of contrast and supplement to this 
more profound instruction given them concerning His sufferings 
was added a glimpse of His personal glory in the scene of the Trans- 
figuration, which is related in immediate connection with this instruc- 
tion, f and which probably took place in the vicinity where they were, 
upon one of the peaks of Hermon. At least this view of the locality 
of the Transfiguration is considered more probable by modern scholars 
than the traditional view, that it took place upon Mount Tabor. For it 
would have involved a long journey from Caesarea Philippi to Mount 
Tabor, and another journey directly back again to Capernaum, where 
we next find our Savior ; while the solitude of Hermon would seem 
more befitting such a scene than the top of Tabor, occupied then with 
a fortification. 

But though it is believed that Jesus' Transfiguration-took place on 
one of these heights of Hermon, that hung above us as we rode out of 
Caesarea Philippi, it is not possible to fix upon any one of them in par- 
ticular. We felt therefore as we mounted our horses that had been 
brought round to the gate of the city, and as we took the winding road 
up into Mount Hermon, over whose shoulder we must pass to Damas- 
cus, that we were leaving behind us the Holy Land and the last locality 
definitely associated with our Savior. The ascent was rocky and in 
some places slippery, and so steep that we often had to hold on to our 
horses' manes to keep from sliding off our saddles ! The hills, at first 
covered with olive-groves, became bare and bleak as we went up ; but 
yielded us looking backward many grand views of the plain and of the 
mountains of Naphtali westward. And the beauty of the scenery was 
greatly enhanced by the magnificent effects of light and shade, produced 
by the beams of sunshine that fell aslant the rocky projections and deep 
recesses of the mountains. 

Upon the summit of a lofty hill on our left we saw the mighty ruined 
fortress of Subeibeh, 1,400 feet above Banias and 2,500 feet above the 
sea ; whose vast size and strength remind one of the ruined castle of 
Heidelberg, though it is of much greater antiquity. It is nearly a third of 
a mile in length, and its depth is 360 feet. The rock falls precipitously 
on three sides of it, and on the fourth access is difficult. Its massive 
foundations are believed to have been laid by the Phenicians, but it was 



* Matt. 16: 21-27, 



fMatt. 17:1-8. 




THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER. 



CJESAREA PHILIPPL 



209 



mainly the work of Herod's day ; restored however by the Crusaders, 
and afterwards strengthened by the Saracens. Thus it combines the 
stupendous labors of more than 2,000 years ; a triumph of human 
energy and skill, that transported to this mountain-top such masses of 
building material, and wrought them into a structure of surpassing 
strength, and excavated beneath it a labyrinth of subterranean vaults 
and cisterns and dungeons and passages, that have not yet been fully 
explored. It could have accommodated a considerable army, and com- 
pletely commanded the route to Damascus. 

For two hours and a half we steadily climbed the mountain towards 
its snow-covered heights, between which great ridges of rock appeared 
as we drew nearer to them. We had some incidents by the way. One 
of the palanquins was nearly upset by striking against a projecting rock ; 
but the lady who was in it was taken out safely, and mounted a horse 
for the remainder of the ascent. And the horse of one of our gentle- 
men fell for the second time, throwing him off ; but fortunately he was 
not hurt. We passed several little hamlets of mountaineers, and finally 
reached the Druse village of Mejdel, near which we were to camp for 
the night ; but found that our tents were not yet put up, and had to 
wait in the cold wind an hour or so. Great snow-banks lay upon the 
hills that overhung this mountain-valley, and the air was keen and pene- 
trating. Some of us sought warmth by exercise, and climbed a steep 
hill from which we gained a view of another lovely valley between the 
ranges of Hermon, inclosing a pretty little lake whose banks were green 
with wheat fields ; for the industrious Druses, who inhabit this moun- 
tain region, utilize every rod of cultivable soil. 

These Druses are a remarkable and interesting people in many re- 
spects. Nothing is certainl)' known of their origin and race-affinity. 
Some have believed them to be of the Indo-Germanic race ; and one 
opinion is that they are mainly the descendants of a band of Crusaders 
left in the country, who forgot their language and creed and home, 
adopting the Mohammedan religion and the Arabic language. Their 
own tradition connects them with China, but is vague and untrust- 
worthy. Perhaps the most plausible theory is, that they are descen- 
dants of the ancient inhabitants of the land, who were introduced from 
the east by Esarhaddon king of Assyria in the 7 th century B. C. after 
the destruction of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes.* But as the dis- 



• II Kings 17 : 24 and Ezra 4 : 2. 
14 



210 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



trict they occupy has received accessions of population from various 
sources, it is probable that, whatever their origin may have been, they 
are of mixed blood. Their name, it is believed, is derived from one 
Ismael Darazi, who in the nth century A. D. invented that variety of 
Mohammedan religion which they adopted. They do not practice 
polygamy • and their women are taught to read and write, and occupy 
a more independent position than Turkish women. Education is valued 
among them ; their literature is extensive. They are thrifty, hospitable, 
fiercely jealous of their liberties, and fanatically devoted to their re- 
ligion. They first drew the attention of the Christian world by their 
barbarous massacres of the Lebanon Christians in 1859 and i860, when 
the latter attempted to throw off their yoke ; and the western powers 
felt constrained to interfere to check their ferocity. 

Near these dangerous neighbors at Mejdel, whose stone-houses, one 
story high, backed against the mountain better protected them from 
the wind than our flapping tents did us, we slept that night. Or rather, 
we tried to sleep ; for the air was so cold, that all the blankets and 
wraps we could pile upon our beds did not avail to keep us warm. So we 
lay awake, and shiveringly anticipated in thought our journey to Da- 
mascus next day. We were 5,000 feet above the sea; as isolated and 
out of communication with the civilized world as though we had been 
upon the ocean ; but we felt that we were safe in the protecting care 
of God, who never forsakes His children. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
Damascus. 

UR last day's ride from Mejdel Esh Shems on Mount Hermon to 
"the Pearl of the East" or "the Eye of the Desert," as Da- 
mascus has been called by its own poets, was over forty miles. 
We had indeed to make two days' journey in one, on account of the 
time we had lost by reason of that terrible storm we encountered in the 
mountains of Benjamin and our consequent delay at the Convent in 
Ramallah. For we must leave Beirut by steamer at a fixed date, and we 
needed the intervening days to see Damascus, and to travel thence to 
Baalbec and Beirut, and to visit them. But after the cold and wake- 
ful night we had spent we were quite willing to rise at 4: 30 a. m., and 
started at 6 o'clock with a keen bracing air and a bright sun, that re- 
mained unclouded all through Syria. 

Our road descended a little way from Mejdel, and then rose consid- 
erably higher than the village. On a pool of water in the hollow we 
saw fresh ice formed about as thick as plate-glass, and there were great 
banks of snow on either side of the path • while the heights of Hermon 
towering thousands of feet above us, for its summits are 10,000 feet 
above the sea, were crowned with perpetual snow. The path was 
stony of course and difficult, and the palanquins travelled slowly. So 
did our horses, who were stiff and lame from the chilly wind that struck 
them the previous evening, when they finished their heated ascent of 
the mountains. Unblanketed and entirely unsheltered they had passed 
the cold night under the open sky ; and the only wonder was that they 
were able to travel at all. One horse in fact was so lame that he could 
not be ridden, and could not keep up with the procession ; and a horse 
was procured in his place from the village. The best mounted of our 
party rode on ahead; but seven of us, whose horses were nearly 
knocked up, staid by the palanquins ; and our guide promised to send 




212 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



back carriages from Damascus to meet us two hours from the city, and 
bring us in. 

We moved in a general northeasterly direction, and across what 
seemed like the crater of an extinct volcano, strewn with masses of lava 
and basalt. All along the mountain there are evidences of former vol- 
canic eruptions, tearing asunder the limestone formations, and leaving 
their congealed streams of lava and loose cinders on the corrugated 
steeps. From a projecting point burst suddenly on us a magnificent 
view of the great plain east of the mountain and lying on our right, 
stretching away to the dark hills of Gilead on the southern horizon and 
northward to Damascus ; a region of Summer heat and, where the 
water flows, of unsurpassed fertility. While on our left hand the snow- 
clad peaks still rose above us. — a contrasted region of perpetual Winter 
and cold. Now we began to descend from one level to another, more 
gradually than we had come up Hermon from the other side. We 
made slow progress with the lumbering palanquins, and it was not till 
half-past twelve that we reached our halting-ground near the large vil- 
lage of Kefr Hauwar, situated on a rushing stream and surrounded by 
gardens. Here we found the advance-guard of our party already 
through with their repast and mounted to go on. We stopped only a 
short time, and hurried through lunch spread on a carpet in the hot 
sunshine, as no tent had been put up. While we were eating, our horses 
got loose and took to fighting. The strange horse procured at Mejdel 
was a disturbing element; and three or four of the horses kicked 
and bit one another viciously, till reduced to submission, by the 
attendants, who, afraid to venture near the dangerous animals, hurled 
great stones at them from a safe distance. Bridles and cruppers were 
broken in the melee ; and when at last order was restored and we 
mounted our beasts, we found two of them quite lame. 

We forded the swiftly flowing river Pharpar, preferred by Naaman to 
all the waters of Israel,* and rode slowly for more than four hours over 
an undulating, treeless, and uncultivated plain; very gradually but con- 
stantly descending. While still a long distance from the city, perhaps 
eighteen or twenty miles away, we caught sight of its glittering domes 
and minarets ; but it seemed as though we never could reach it. Pres- 
ently we passed a green cultivated hill on our right, called Juneh. the 
traditional site of Saul's vision of our Savior, as the zealous persecutor 
was hurrying to Damascus. The old Roman road from Palestine winds 



*II Kings 5: 12. 



DAMASCUS. 



213 



around the foot of this hill, and it is not unlikely the spot where at mid- 
day Saul saw a great light from heaven above the brightness of the sun 
shining about him, and heard the voice saying to him, " Saul, Saul, 
why persecutest thou me ? " * With intense interest I surveyed this 
spot, for here was gained to the cause of Christ its most important 
accession, — the greatest of the Apostles, the greatest of Christian mis- 
sionaries, the greatest of Christian writers, the kingliest Christian soul 
of all the ages. Truly he was " a chosen vessel " of the Lord, who 
not only achieved but suffered great things for His name's sake.f 

From this hill of Juneh a cultivated region began, the fields being 
systematically irrigated and green with growing wheat. On we rode to 
the village of Artuse about a dozen miles from Damascus, where to our 
great delight the carriages met us; and we were soon transferred to 
them, tired out with our thirty miles on horseback, but sorry for those 
of the party in advance who had to ride their horses these twelve miles 
also. This was the first time since we left Jerusalem that we had had 
the luxury of riding in a carriage. The road over the plain was smooth, 
and the drivers urged on their sorry beasts ; yet it was fully two hours 
and after dark before we reached the Hotel Demetri. We missed there- 
fore that evening seeing the beautiful orchards of fruit-trees interspersed 
with gardens, which surround the city with a girdle of verdure three 
miles in breadth. The river Barada, the ancient Abana, flows through 
the city, and fills countless irrigating canals to which this fertility and 
bloom are due. Figs, olives, pomegranates, walnuts, apricots, peaches, 
apples, pears, cherries, almonds, palms, and groves of poplar gladden 
the eyes of those who come to Damascus over long stretches of desert 
or rocky and barren hills. It is not strange they call the city " the Pearl 
of the East," " the Plumage of the Peacock," " Glorious as Eden." It 
is said that Mohammed looking down upon it for the first from the 
mountains on the west, turned away and refused to enter the city, say- 
ing, " Man can have but one Paradise, and my Paradise is fixed above." 
But the beauty of Damascus is really due to comparison with the sur- 
rounding deserts ; and I could not but wonder what Mohammed would 
have said, could he rather have looked down from the heights of St. 
Cloud upon the Bois de Boulogne and the enchanting environs of 
lovely Paris. Perhaps in such a case he might have been tempted to 
resign his future Paradise for a present one ! 

Through this sea of foliage we drove in the deepening dusk of even- 



* Acts 9 13, 4. 



t Acts 9: 15, 16. 



214 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



ing by a succession of streets to the Hotel Demetri, the famous old 
hostelry of Damascus. Demetri was a Greek, who long kept this hotel; 
and since his death it has continued to bear his name. It is a real Ori- 
ental house; two stories high, with projecting balconies to the upper 
windows, and massive doors to the entrance below that a mob would 
find difficult to force open. One enters a marble-paved hall or court, 
from which the offices open on the right hand, and the parlor and din- 
ing rooms a few steps up on the left. The court leads back to a large 
square inner court, marble-paved and open to the sky, containing a 
fountain and great lemon-trees. Guest-chambers open upon this court 
on the ground floor, and a staircase leads to a gallery extending around 
the court, upon which other chambers s open. Mine was one of the 
chambers on the second floor; and how delightful it was to occupy it, 
and to resume temporarily the habits of civilization! To find a table 
there on which to write letters to home friends ; to go down stairs and 
sit on upholstered chairs in the parlor, and hear the young ladies of our 
party pound the piano ; to have room enough at the dining-table, so 
that one did not feel his neighbor's elbows poking his ribs ; to sleep in 
a clean comfortable bed ; and to have fresh towels for the toilet, 
instead of towels that had been used for two weeks and were changed 
by the attendants every day from one tent to another, so that nobody 
could even keep his own towel. Ah ! these were luxuries indeed ! As 
for me, I said to my companions, I am a man of civilization. Give me 
its privileges, and let those who will enjoy the primitive simplicity of 
tent life and the freedom of the desert. 

Yet outside of our hotel we did not find the civilization of Damascus 
of a high type. It is a thoroughly Oriental city; much more so than 
Cairo, which has been to a considerable degree Europeanized and even 
Anglicized. It is much smaller than Cairo ; being about six miles in 
circumference and containing perhaps 200,000 inhabitants. Its houses 
are for the most part built of sun-dried brick, and are mean and dilapi- 
dated in appearance; generally showing only blank walls without, 
because the windows open on inner courts; though some houses have 
upper windows projecting out from the walls into the streets, and prop- 
ped up from below by rough poles. The streets are narrow, crooked, 
ill-paved, and dirty. The only scavengers are the ownerless, yellow 
dogs, whose heads and faces resemble those of foxes, and who live in 
the streets where they devour the offal. One morning I counted in a walk 
of fifteen minutes no less than seventy-six dogs, looking sleek and well-fed 



DAMASCUS. 



as they lounged in the sunshine. There are few bits of sidewalk in the city; 
men, women, camels, donkeys, and dogs crowd one another in the streets 
in confusion, and one must look sharp or he will be run over. The ba- 
zaars are long lanes arched overhead with stone or wood so that they are 
dark, having on either side a row of open stalls, each about as large as 
a good sized closet; where the tradesmen sitting cross-legged sell their 
goods, and where the work of manufacturing the goods goes on in sight 
of the public. Each trade has its own street or bazaar. Here you 
find e. g. the quarters of the leather trade ; on another street the silver- 
smiths ; on another the venders of provisions ; on another clothing 
shops, and so on. We saw a profusion of goods everywhere displayed, 
and business seemed to be reasonably brisk. 

Our first walk in the city was to "the street which is called Straight." 
where Ananias was directed to inquire for Saul of Tarsus.* It has a 
high arched roof of wood, and is lined with shops. Once it was a 
broad avenue running through the city, and adorned with columns on 
both sides ; but gradually the shops encroached upon the street, till it 
became very narrow in some places and remained wider in others — full of 
turns and corners and niches — anything but straight. At length a few years 
ago a Governor of Syria caused a convenient fire to occur in the street, 
and then he took advantage of it to widen and straighten the thoroughfare. 
Here we visited the traditional "house of Judas," where Saul stayed ;f 
now converted into a mosque. We also went to the so-called site of 
the house of Ananias in another part of the city. Descending a flight 
of stone steps from an inner court, we entered a Roman Catholic 
Church, which it is claimed was built on the site. It is small and plain; 
its only point of interest a side-chapel, whose ceiling is said to be 
composed of the original stones of the house. Then, to finish our 
survey of the Pauline relics of Damascus, we went out of the east gate 
of the city, where we saw three arched gateways in the old wall. The 
middle one and largest was for caravans, we were told ; the south gate 
for entrance and the north for exit. Only the latter is now open ; the 
other two are walled up ; and they say that it was through one of these, 
the south gate, that Paul entered Damascus. Having passed through 
the open gate we turned to our right, and walked along outside the wall 
once so formidable. We observed that the stones of the lower section 
of the wall, believed to have belonged to Roman times, are very large ; 
while the upper portion of the wall is built of smaller blocks, and is 



* Acts 9:11. 



t Acts <y. 11. 



2l6 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



evidently of later construction. On this south side of the city was 
pointed out to us the spot, where tradition says Paul was let down by 
night in a basket from a house built on the top of the wall.* But so 
many changes have taken place in the city since Paul's day, that I 
think little dependence is to be put on any of these traditions. 

There is no handsome architecture in Damascus, either ancient or 
modern, such as we find in Cairo. I have spoken of the mean appear- 
ance of the houses ; despite the fact that there are said to be hundreds 
of mansions here that might be termed palaces. We visited two of 
these mansions ; and while palatial indeed within, the exteriors are plain 
dead walls roughly plastered over to show no sign of grandeur nor tempt 
the cupidity of robbers. One of these was the house of a wealthy Jew, 
who kindly allows tourists to enter it and see how an Oriental home is 
arranged. From a dirty street or alley about eight feet wide we stepped 
through a low door in the wall, and followed a passage into a court 
open to the sky. From this court the servants' rooms are reached. 
Another passage led us to an inner court, upon which open the rooms 
of the family. The drawing-room was quite elegant ; wainscoted with 
marble, and floored with marbles inlaid ; a fountain with marble basin 
supported by carved lions at one end of the room, and the floor at the 
other end elevated about fifteen inches and carpeted with a sumptuous 
rug. The chairs were inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and the walls covered 
with mirrors and elaborate marble carvings as delicate as lace. We 
passed out thence into a large garden, where roses and geraniums grew 
as they grow in our own California, — the roses like trees, and the ge- 
raniums like honeysuckle-vines. Two daughters of the owner greeted 
our ladies j dressed in European costume, but wearing wooden sandals 
with detached heel and toes, about three inches high ; a capital device 
for muddy streets, that our ladies in America might do well to adopt. 

In the Christian quarter of the city we also obtained admission to 
the house of a wealthy man, which had similar outer and inner courts 
adorned with murmuring fountains and ornamental trees. The draw- 
ing-room was furnished in a costly and tasteful manner • as in the Jew's 
mansion, a raised platform at one end of the apartment covered with 
the finest velvet carpet, and chairs inlaid with mother-of-pearl, a foun- 
tain, and lace curtains, and paintings. This was the saloon where the 
gentleman of the house received his friends. The ladies' sitting-room 
we were permitted to enter, and found it arranged similarly but with in- 



* Acts 9 : 25 



DAMASCUS. 



217 



ferior furniture ; a broad divan ran around the sides of the room, and 
there was a cheap Brussels tapestry carpet on the floor, and no fountain 
or lace-curtains. Evidently in the east the ladies do not fare as well as 
they do in the west. In our country they are given the best of every- 
thing ; but in the east the men appropriate the best, and the ladies are 
given the poorest — thankful to be tolerated at all ! 

The most noteworthy building that we saw in Damascus was the 
Great Mosque so-called, which was destroyed by fire in October follow- 
ing our visit. For while the city contains nearly 250 mosques and Mo- 
hammedan schools, this one exceeded all the others in interest as in re- 
pute of sanctity ; being one of the four principal sanctuaries of Islam, 
the other three being the mosques of Mecca, Jerusalem, and Medina. 
It was venerable in its antiquity and imposing in size ; but its exterior 
was so far concealed by the bazaars crowded against it, that one could 
get no satisfactory view of the building from without. We went through 
a covered street of shops, and came suddenly upon three or four lofty 
columns with Corinthian capitals and a ruined pediment, which marked 
the western entrance to the old Pagan temple of Jupiter that once oc- 
cupied the site of the mosque. For it is to be observed, that in the 
East a spot once regarded as sacred seems to retain its sacredness 
through all time and all changes of religion. So it has been with Mount 
Moriah in Jerusalem from the days of Abraham to the present time. 
And so upon this spot in Damascus once stood the House of Rimmon 
where the kings of Syria worshipped, and where Naaman the cured leper 
felt that he would be obliged to bow himself when the king leaned upon 
his arm, and hoped the Lord would excuse him for this act of idolatrous 
compliance.* Afterwards in Roman times a temple of Jupiter replaced 
the house of Rimmon ; the deity but not the locality of worship being 
changed. Then the temple was partly removed and built over as a 
Christian church on the same site, as early as 400 A. D. And finally in the 
seventh century the Moslems conquered Damascus, and for about 
seventy years used part of the church for their own worship, and allowed 
the Christians to use the other part ; but at length took possession of 
the whole building, altered it over, and adding the minarets and arcades 
converted it into a mosque. 

Passing in between the Corinthian columns, the reminiscence of 
Roman workmanship, we tied over our shoes the indispensable yellow 
slippers, and shuffled into a vast paved court ; on the right or south 



* II Kings 5 : IS. 



218 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



side of which stood the mosque proper, and on the north side a deep 
covered colonade. The whole quadrangle is said to measure 489 X324 
feet. In the centre of the court we saw a marble fountain, adorned 
with pillars, arches, and a graceful Saracenic canopy, where the faithful 
must perform their ablutions before prayer. At the west end was a 
hexagonal dome-topped tower supported upon eight short Corinthian pil- 
lars, and called the "Dome of the Treasures;" said to contain ancient 
manuscripts of immense value and other relics. Once the authorities 
undertook to open the side of the tower to investigate its contents ; but 
it is said that blood flowed out, and defiled the mosque. So they 
sent for Christian masons to close up and plaster over the break ; and 
the Moslems believe that if the Dome is ever opened and the treasures 
taken out, it will be an end to Moslem power in Damascus. At the 
opposite or east end of the court stood the Observatory, where they took 
the sun as the phrase is, and obtained their time ; but as we found their 
official clocks about the mosque several hours out of the way, we con- 
cluded that their observations could not be very scientific. 

We entered the mosque on the south side of the court. Its plan was 
that of a basilica or ancient Greek Church; two rows of Corinthian 
columns supported the lofty roof, dividing the interior into a nave and 
two aisles, all of equal breath ; and there was a central dome and a 
transept with four great marble piers. On the south side we noticed 
several apses or praying-niches indicating the direction of Mecca, and a 
row of round-topped windows filled with stained glass. On the north 
side were two raised platforms, where we saw old men reading the 
Koran in immense books. It seems that it is reckoned a pious act 
for a wealthy Mohammedan when he dies to leave a sum of money to 
have the Koran written out in very large letters, so that those who are 
old or have defective vision can come to the mosque and read the 
Koran without spectacles or eye-glasses ; which the Mohammedans 
will not use because only Christians make them. The floor of the 
mosque was paved with stone, but mostly covered by handsome rugs 
that were well worn. Texts from the Koran adorned the walls, and 
vast numbers of lamps and chandeliers hung from the carved ceiling. 
In the great central dome remained some of the mosaic work that was 
in the building when used as a Christian church. And under the dome 
was built a splended tomb, said to contain the head of St. John the 
Baptist preserved in a gold casket. Probably there was a confusion of 



DAMASCUS. 



219 



names, and it was the remains of St. John of Damascus that were buried 
here. 

We passed into a side-chapel, where we were shown a slab in a little 
recess in the wall, under which they claim to keep some of the hairs 
from Mahomet's beard. In another chapel opening out of this one are 
the tombs of the two Mohammedan martyrs, Houssein and Hassan; 
and on a low pedestal here is their greatest treasure, the skull of Adam 
covered with a red cloth ! We were not allowed to remove the cloth to 
look at the skull of our famed ancestor; but having been shown Adam's 
tomb under the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, we thought 
it only fair that if the Christians had his tomb, the Mohammedans 
should have his skull. The latter claim that Damascus was the site of 
the Garden of Eden, and that the clay from which Adam was made was 
taken from the banks of the Abana. 

A more interesting relic however than this, because a veritable one, is 
the tomb of the great Saladin ; which we reached by crossing the court 
and visiting a small detached building on the north of the colonnade. 
Within the chamber under a lofty dome is a handsome tomb about five 
feet high, built by the czar of Russia, of white marble inlaid with 
colored marbles, sculptured on the sides, and having an Arabic 
inscription at one end that gives the date of Saladin's birth, 532 of the 
Mohammedan era or 1137 A. D., and of his death in 587 former era or 
1 1 93 A. D. At the head of the tomb on the usual upright stone is a 
huge representation of Saladin's turban; and close by is the plainer 
tomb of his prime minister crowned also by his green turban. So 
quietly sleeps the man who once conquered the united forces of the 
Christian world ; and though an unbeliever set them a noble example 
of faithfulness to his promises, generosity, chivalry, and mercy. 

We went back into the mosque, and ascended by a winding stone 
stair-way one of the three tall, tapering minarets, from either of which 
a magnificent view of the city and adjoining country can be obtained. 
Ours was "the Minaret of Jesus," 250 feet high, so named from the 
legend that when Jesus comes to judge the world He will descend here 
first. Though another Mohammedan tradition, as has been previously 
stated, locates this event in the temple-area at Jerusalem above the valley 
of Jehoshaphat. What a prospect it was from the top of the minaret ! 
The whole city radiating in every direction below us, the great castle of 
Damascus built in 12 19, the vast orchards of fruit-trees surrounding the 
city, and the mighty range of Lebanon with the snowcapped peaks of 



2 20 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



Hermon in the distance ; — a beautiful picture destined to live long in 
memory. 

When we came down, there was one more interesting thing about the 
building to be seen. We went out of the quadrangle, as we came in, 
by the west entrance, and walked through a street of shops on the south 
side of the mosque ; obtained a ladder, and climbed through a window 
over the shops to a point where we saw the great gate-way, by which 
the building was entered when it was a Christian church. The gate has 
long been walled up, but the rich carving above it showed us what its 
magnificence must have been. And over this gate we read the inscrip- 
tion in Greek, "Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and 
Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations." * The Moslems, 
when they turned the church into a mosque, neglected to obliterate 
this text • as they neglected to obliterate on the bronze gate at the 
eastern entrance a representation of a communion-cup ; and both have 
stood there for centuries in mute protest against Mohammedan dese- 
cration, and, shall we not say ? in prophecy that Christianity shall yet 
prevail over the religion of the False Prophet. 

On the 14th of October, 1893, this splendid mosque was burned. 
The fire broke out a little before noon in the wooden roof of the build- 
ing, upon which workmen were engaged in making repairs, and is sup- 
posed to have caught from a coal or spark that they accidentally let fall. 
As there are no adequate means of extinguishing fires in Damascus, 
everything about the building that could burn was reduced to ashes, and 
only the bare walls remained. Those beautiful Corinthian columns in 
the interior were destroyed by the intense heat, but the three minarets 
were not injured. The fire spread to the adjoining bazaars on the 
south side, and hundreds of shops were wiped out. Had the confla- 
gration started in the night rather than the day, it would doubtless have 
proved even more disastrous. Steps were at once taken by the author- 
ities to invite contributions for the rebuilding of the mosque; the debris 
was cleared away, and work was begun on the restoration. But though 
the project may be carried out, the new mosque will lack that charm 
of antiquity and association which has made so memorable the Mosque 
of the Omeiyades. 

The visitor to Damascus is impressed not only with its religious mon- 
uments and traditions but with its commercial activity. From very early 
times it has been prominent as a mart of merchandize, as we may in- 



Ps. 145: 13, 



DAMASCUS. 



221 



fer from Ezekiel's mention of it in his remarkable description of ancient 
Tyre's wealth and greatness and extensive trading relations with all 
countries.* Such prominence it held by reason of its situation on the 
great caravan-routes from the interior to the coast. And this promi- 
nence it retains to some extent, although the commerce of the east 
is now carried mainly by vessels on the Indian Ocean and through 
the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea. But the caravans from Bag- 
dad and Aleppo still bring across the deserts to Damascus large quantities 
of goods ; as we learned by visiting some of the khans or wholesale 
markets where they come in, and whence they are distributed by way of 
Beirut to Cairo and Constantinople and western ports. While the once 
famous manufactures of the city, consisting of silks, cotton and woollen 
goods, jewelry, saddlery, and arms, although not so important now as 
formerly, are still considerable. The celebrated Damascus blades of 
steel are not now made ; but the bazaars are filled with treasures of silk 
and costly rugs and articles of hammered brass and wood-work inlaid 
with mother-of-pearl, that|tempt the tourist to purchase beyond his ability 
to resist. It is difficult for the lover of curios to tear himself away from 
the alluring shops of this quaint old city. And especially he lingers over 
the collection of swords and daggers and knives and suits of armor and 
spears and lances, that are sold as relics of bye-gone times, and were 
once stained perhaps with Christian blood in many a fierce conflict. 

We spent considerable time wandering through the bazaars, examining 
and cheapening goods ; for the dealers always ask much more than the 
goods are worth or they expect to receive, and a purchaser must beat them 
down or he will be enormously cheated. We watched the manufacture 
of goods going on along the sides of these roofed streets; braziers, 
wood-workers, shoe-makers, weavers, tailors, and so on — all busy at 
their craft. But the people themselves were the most interesting sight — 
one that we never tired of gazing at. Men of many races thronged the 
narrow passage-ways; Syrians and Bedouins and Greeks and Jews and 
negroes and Egyptians and Persians, of various complexions and dress; 
most of them wearing turbans of different colors according to their re- 
ligious sect, but many wearing the fez or red felt cap with tassel, and 
some the kefiyeh bound around the head with camels' hair rope, and 
some the tall black hat of the Greek priests, and some the European 
head-gear. The women were even more mysteriously clad than the 
men. The Mohammedan women in long robes of striped yellow and 

*Ezek. 27 : 18. 



2 22 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



dark blue silk, instead of the black robe commonly used in Egypt; while 
the face was concealed, not with a black or white veil as in that country 
allowing the eyes to be seen, but with a figured and colored veil that com- 
pletely covered the whole face and head. The Christian women however 
wore a white muslin robe, and went with uncovered faces. But if the 
people were a show to us, we were still more a show to them. They 
gazed upon our company with undisguised curiosity; and the men 
would gather in crowds around the bazaars where we shopped, and 
watch our ladies with the greatest interest and evident admiration. 
The easy, unrestrained manners of our American girls, chatting and 
laughing as they would do at home, were the greatest novelty imagin- 
able to men accustomed to see women mostly veiled, always silent, flit- 
ting shyly like ghosts through the streets. 

We would willingly have lingered longer in this city, so fascinating 
on account of its past as well as its present. It claims to be the oldest 
-city in the world with a continued existence to the present time. 
Josephus says it was founded by Uz the grandson of Shem. But 
however that may be, it is first mentioned in Scripture as existing in 
Abraham's day, whose steward Eliezer came from Damascus.* Accord- 
ing to tradition Abraham stayed some time here after leaving Haran and 
before entering the promised land, and was king of the place. We next 
read of the city in David's day, who conquered it and put garrisons in 
it, and the Syrians became his servants.! But in Solomon's time they 
rebelled, and became independent ; % and continued to be relentless 
foes both of Israel and Judah until overcome and carried away captive 
by the Assyrians in the reign of Ahaz king of Judah. § Damascus was 
then ruined ; but was rebuilt, and became an important place during 
the Persian period, and subsequently under the Greeks and Romans. 
Conquered by the Mohammedans in 634 A. D., it grew to be one of 
the first cities of the eastern world, and through all mutations since has 
retained its ascendency. For it is not only a centre of commerce, but 
its great plain watered by the Barada, the Wady Helbon, and the Awaj 
is one of extreme fertility, and affords supplies for a large population. 
The Barada flows directly through the city, and eastward for about fif- 
teen miles, when it separates and empties its waters into two small 
marshy lakes without outlet on the edge of the desert. There the spark- 
ing streams lose themselves in evaporation — fit type of the limited flow 
and wasting away of Mohammedan civilization. 

* Gen. 15:2. f II Sam. 8: 5, 6. % I Kings n : 23-25. §11 Kings i r :g. 



DAMASCUS. 



223 



Damascus is a hot-bed of Moslem fanaticism, where Christians are 
heartily hated and cursed. In July i860 this hatred, excited by the 
murders perpetrated in the Lebanon by the Druses upon the Maronite 
Christians, broke out in a bloody massacre, in which over 2,500 male 
Christians were slaughtered in Damascus, and about 6,000 houses were 
destroyed in the Christian quarter. It was a reign of terror for three 
days ; till at length the Turkish authorities, who had allowed the mas- 
sacre to go on, became alarmed for the consequences, and took the 
Christians who were left into the castle for protection. All Europe was 
horrified ; and France sent an army of 10,000 men to Beirut in the 
interests of humanity. The Tu^ks were cowed, and hung or shot the 
ringleaders in the riot, among them the Pasha of the city, and order 
was restored. Steps were then taken by the French to build the ad- 
mirable road from Beirut to Damascus, by which the two places form- 
erly four days distant were brought within thirteen hours of each other. 
Constructed for a military purpose in case it should be necessary to 
transport troops swiftly to suppress another outbreak, it is now a high- 
way of Western civilization and commerce ; over which pass European 
goods to the bazaars of Damascus, and Oriental products pass to the 
sea-coast, and tourists travel comfortably to and fro in French diligences. 

In so bigoted a city the work of Protestant Missions has been 
difficult and slow. But for fifty years the Presbyterian Church of Ireland 
and the United Presbyterian Church of America have maintained 
missions and schools among the native Christians with gratifying 
success. The Church Missionary Society of England and the London 
Society for the Conversion of the Jews and a Scotch Medical Mission 
have also done good work. Many children and youth have received a 
Protestant Christian education; even some of the Mohammedans 
have been touched and won over ; and the way has been prepared for 
greater results that we trust will we reached in the future. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



Baalbec. 

fHE morning came when we must leave Damascus — a day of per- 
fect sunshine and warmth. We felt rested and ready to travel; 
but when our horses were brought to the door of the hotel, we 
learned that three of them had died, and that seven others were so used 
up by the severe journey they were not able to go on. So we were 
provided with some fresh horses. My reliable beast however was in 
tolerably good condition, except that he was a little stiff at the start, 
and I had difficulty in getting him to move fast enough to walk over 
one of those yellow dogs that lay in the street sunning themselves. At 
last he stepped on one that was asleep, and a fierce yelp gave us a part- 
ing salute! We rode along one of the canals that bring the Abana or 
Barada river into the city, through gardens and orchards, and turned 
into the diligence-road to Beirut for four or five miles. This road con- 
structed by French engineers and French capital is hard and smooth 
and dry, like the roads through the Swiss passes. It is seventy miles 
long, and is carried by easy winding grades over two ranges of moun- 
tains, Anti-Lebanon and Lebanon. After leaving the plain it enters a 
deep gorge that separates the range of Anti-Lebanon from Hermon, 
and follows upward the course of the river Barada, which is marked by 
a ribbon of grass and trees amid the desolate chalk hills. On the first 
of these hills was pointed out to us a tomb with a dome over it, where 
the Mohammedans say Cain was buried. 

After awhile our road turned away from the river, and we lost the 
pretty ravine, and followed another quite barren. We passed several 
villages ; and a little beyond the village of Dummar we left the broad 
diligence-road, and took an ordinary rough bridle-path, which we pur- 
sued through narrow valleys and over hills and across the plain of Sahra 
till we entered another glen, the Wady Barada. Here we struck the 




PORTAL OF THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN. 



B A ALB EC. 



225 



river again, and its course was marked as before by a strip of verdure, 
in which wheatfields and orchards of various fruit trees and groves of 
walnut and poplar flourished in tropical luxuriance. Riding on we saw 
far in the distance on the top of a high hill another dome-shaped tomb, 
which the Mohammedans claim is the tomb of Abel ! But why Cain 
should have been privileged to rest so much nearer the site of Eden 
than his more deserving brother Abel was not explained to us. We 
wound along the base of this hill, and passed the Fountain of Fijeh the 
chief source of the Abana, as the Fountain of Banias is the chief source 
of the Jordan. Here are the ruins of an old Pagan temple dedicated 
to the god of the river. At the upper end of the glen and not far from 
the village of Suk, the site of ancient Abilene, we came to our lunch- 
tent pitched under the hill that was crowned by Abel's tomb, and in 
this quiet spot we rested an hour and a half. 

Then we rode on through a narrow gorge, crossing the stream by a 
stone bridge. A little further on we saw the openings to ancient Ro- 
man tombs cut high up in the cliffs ; and beyond these we dismounted 
and scrambled up the cliff to see a deep cutting in the rock, through 
which a Roman road once passed. The cutting was twenty-five or 
thirty feet deep, very smoothly done ; and on one side was an inscrip 
tion in Latin upon the rock, stating that this work was done in the 
reign of the emperor Antoninus Pius at the expense of the people of 
Abilene, the city which was in the valley below. Above the inscrip- 
tion was a niche carved in the rock, probably to receive a statue. On 
the other side of the stream was a cutting in the rock for a viaduct to con- 
vey water to the city. No doubt the stream was then larger in volume 
than now, and the road had to be made high up in the bank, whereas 
it now runs along the side of the stream. We had a bad piece of rocky 
road to travel after this, and then we climbed over the hills of Anti- 
Lebanon, and entered the plain of Zebedany, about three miles broad 
and highly cultivated. On a lofty hill a thousand feet above us perched 
the mountain-village of Bludan, a summer resort from the heat for the 
foreigners at Damascus. We were glad that we had not to climb up 
there; but found our camp established for the night not far from the 
village of Zebedany, and near two springs of water shaded by an old 
willow and a great oak. Here after dinner our muleteers entertained 
us with a Bedouin sword-dance around a camp-fire made of boughs and 
roots of trees ; which was pleasant to sit by, as the evening was chilly 
in this elevated region. 

15 



226 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



Next morning we were off at an early hour, and enjoyed another 
bright, warm day. We crossed several high hills, from which we looked 
down on the green and fertile valley with its blossoming orchards and 
numerous vineyards — a Paradise of culture. The vines in this country 
are not supported by poles or stakes, but are allowed to lie along the 
ground; perhaps to get moisture from the earth during the dry season. 
We reached the water-shed of the Anti-Lebanon, and came to a rush- 
ing tortuous brook flowing into the Mediterranean ; which we followed 
down for many miles, fording it from one side to another no less than 
fifteen times, and entered the glen of Yafufeh — a narrow pass where 
there is scarcely room for the road beside the swift stream. At length 
our road left the pass, and led us up a hill of sheer rock; where the palan- 
quins, which were in advance, stuck fast between the projecting bould- 
ers and could not get on. Here we sat on our horses nearly an hour, 
waiting while the muleteers tried in vain to take the palanquins up. 
Finally the clumsy vehicles were brought down the hill again, and sent 
on by a lower road along the stream ; while we horsemen climbed the 
precipitous rocks, over which it seemed that only goats could possibly 
go with safety. Had we encountered such an ascent at the beginning 
of our journey, we should have despaired ; but now made fearless by 
experience, and having confidence in our horses that they could climb 
the outside of a church-spire if necessary, we gleefully urged them up to 
the summit. 

This was the last of the hills of An ti Lebanon; and picking our way 
over the rock-strewn summit we saw before us a vision of grandeur and 
beauty that made us in a moment forget all the perils of the ascent. Stretch- 
ing along the whole western horizon was the magnificent snowy range 
of Lebanon, still loftier than the range we had crossed; and between 
us and it lay below the green plain of Bukaa, or the Valley of Coele- 
Syria, i e. the hollow of Syria as it was anciently called, one of the 
garden-spots of the world. It was well worth the- long ride from Da- 
mascus to obtain so superb a view. Slowly descending toward the 
plain, we came to a village on the highlands between the mountain and 
the plain, called the village of the prophet Seth, where we saw what 
the Mohammedans claim to be the tomb of Seth the son of Adam ! Then 
turning northward we rode over many a gently sloping hill hour after 
hour, till at length the latter part of the afternoon we reached our camp- 
ing-ground at the town of Baalbec ; where we were to see those massive 



B A ALB EC. 



227 



ruined temples that rival the ruins of Egypt in their colossal magnitude 
and deserved fame. 

Baalbec was probably a Phenician city, but its early history is lost in 
the mists of antiquity. Attempted identifications of it with various 
places mentioned in the Bible, such as Baalath one of Solomon's cities,* 
are very doubtful. It is believed to have been the city called Heliopolis, 
i. e. the City of the Sun, by the Greeks and Romans; made a colony 
by Julius Caesar and a flourishing seat of Pagan worship as well as com- 
merce by subsequen temperors. Its magnificence at that time, adorned as 
it was with stately palaces, costly monuments, fountains, baths, and 
gardens, is attested still by the splendor of its shattered temples. These 
are three in number, commonly called the Great Temple, the Temple 
of the Sun, and the Circular Temple, which strikingly contrast with 
the humble appearance of the modern village of about 3,000 inhabitants 
and with its ruined mosques, that were buildings of considerable pre- 
tensions in their day. 

The two first named temples were built, not on the natural level of 
the ground but on an immense artificial platform 1,100 feet long, sup- 
ported by mighty arches and substructures that dwarf those of the tem- 
ple-area at Jerusalem, and surrounded by high and thick walls more 
solid than those of any fortress. We first examined some of those sub- 
structures ; entering into a long arched tunnel, seventeen feet wide and 
thirty feet high, that runs from east to west under one side of the plat- 
form. This tunnel is constructed of large blocks of stone, many of 
them ten to twelve feet long and six feet wide and thick. The size of 
its arched gateway shows that the original surface of the ground was 
lower than the present, as part of the arch is buried. Within the tun- 
nel a door to the right led to a court, and one to the left to a large dark 
room perhaps used for stores for the garrison, who it is thought ten- 
anted these passages. Some distance within a transverse tunnel led off 
to the right, connecting we were told with another tunnel running east 
and west under the other side of the platform. 

We walked through our tunnel, which was about a thousand feet 
long, looking at the vast stones of Phenician workmanship perhaps 
wrought in Solomon's time ; and we came out at the west end, and 
ascended to the great court, which we crossed to look at the facade 
outside on the east. Here was the grand portico of the temple, 180 
feet wide, which must have been reached by a flight of ponderous stone 



* 2 Chron. 8 : 6. 



228 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



steps from the plain below. One stone in this portico is twenty-five 
feet long. Its great door-way is now walled up; probably this was done 
by the Moslems when they turned the temple into a fortress in me- 
diaeval times. At either end of the portico was built a pavilion, possi- 
bly used as a sacristy. We entered the one on the right hand, where 
we saw remains of the Roman decorations done in the days of An- 
toninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius 160-180 A. D. 

Then passing within the portico we came into a hexagonal atrium or 
court about 250 feet wide, now much filled up with rubbish and earth. 
Its sides were once lined with recesses and windows now ruined. At 
the further or west end of this a handsome portal fifty feet wide admit- 
ted one to the great court or quadrangle before the temple proper. 
This quadrangle is 440 feet deep and 370 feet wide ; containing thus 
an area of between three and four acres. Around its sides were re- 
cesses and small chambers, used probably by the priests and for store- 
rooms, inclosed once by rows of pillars and statues now reduced to 
fragments or buried in the rubbish. Beyond these unroofed courts, i. e. 
still to the west, stood the Great Temple of Jupiter, of which the only 
remains are six lofty Corinthian columns standing in a row on the south 
side. Their grandeur may be imagined, when it is stated that their 
height of shaft is sixty feet, and their diameter at the base seven feet, 
and that with pedestal, capital, and entablature they are eighty-nine 
feet high. They are built in three sections or blocks. Originally there 
were nineteen such columns on each side and ten at each end ; as we 
can still trace their shattered bases and portions of their shafts. What 
a magnificent peristyle this must have been ! and how glorious the whole 
temple when it stood complete, 290 feet long and 160 feet wide, on its 
platform built up fifty feet above the ground, conspicuous to all the 
people living in the plain or on the sides of Lebanon and Anti-Leba- 
non ! 

A little to the southeast of this Great Temple stands the smaller but 
better preserved Temple of the Sun, also facing the east and occupy- 
ing a platform of its own above the plain. It is surrounded by a colon- 
nade like the other temple ; the columns forty-five feet high and six 
feet in diameter, with Corinthian capitals. Originally there were fifteen 
columns on each side and eight at each end, of which we found nine 
standing in position on the north side of the temple. They support an 
entablature seven feet high, from which a ceiling extends back to the 
walls of the temple proper. This ceiling of the peristyle is exquisitely 



BAALBEC. 229 

carved in Intaglio with busts of gods and heroes inclosed in hexagonal 
mouldings ; and its slabs of stone are about four feet thick, as we saw 
from some of them which had fallen to the ground. We passed to the 
eastern front of the building, where we. saw the splendid gateway with 
delicately sculptured lintel and sides, and on the under side of the lintel 
a sculptured genius with wings — supposed to be the emblem of the sun- 
god. A huge mass of stone broken out from the centre of the lintel 
long hung down threatening to fall, and was only held up because its 
upper part being wider was caught fast between the remaining portions 
of the stone. Lately however the Turks have built up a pier of masonry 
to support this monster fragment, so that it cannot fall. An immense 
column on the side of the gate-way contains a stone stair-case leading 
to the roof of the building, and some of our party ascended it. The 
four side-walls of the temple are standing, adorned within by fluted 
Corinthian pillars running up to the ceiling and by sculptured orna- 
ments of fruits and acorns. There are arched recesses between the 
pillars, where it is supposed statues of gods were placed; and at the 
further end was the Holy Place now quite ruined. 

But marvellous as are these temples and courts and vaulted passages 
beneath, no less marvellous are the exterior walls that inclose the whole 
group of buildings. The size of the stones composing these walls is 
prodigious. At one place there are nine stones each about thirty feet 
long and ten feet thick — fit to have been reared by Titans. But these 
we found vastly exceeded by three enormous stones in the western wall, 
the largest ever used in architecture. They measure respectively sixty- 
three feet, sixty-three feet eight inches, and sixty-four feet in length, and 
are thirteen feet high and probably as many feet thick. Nor do they 
lie on the ground, but are inserted in the wall nineteen feet above the 
ground. How were they ever removed from the quarry, or lifted to 
that height, and so nicely fitted in the wall that you can scarcely thrust 
a knife-blade between them ? The most plausible theory is that rollers 
were put under them, and they were drawn up solid dirt-ways built in 
the form of inclined planes by sheer human force. Labor was cheap in 
those days, as it was slave-labor ; and it was nothing to the ruling des- 
pots if tens of thousands of human lives were sacrificed in the fearful 
strain of raising these giant blocks of stone. But one block we saw 
that was never removed from the quarries south-east of the town. It is 
the largest dressed stone in the world ; its length is variously given from 
sixty-eight to eighty-four feet, its breadth fourteen feet, and height four- 



23° 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



teen feet. The rock above and around it has all been cut away, so 
that it lies in a wide open space, ready to be removed except that it is 
not entirely detached from the rock below. Why it was thus left, nobody 
knows; but it remains a colossal example of man's unfinished under 
takings, over which we might moralize at length. 

It seems astonishing that so late in the history of Roman Paganism 
as the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Septimius Severus such mighty and 
costly temples could have been erected in honor of a waning faith. 
For Christianity had already made decided progress in the Roman em- 
pire, and while ruthlessly persecuted was clearly the religion of the 
future. But these structures at Baalbec show the stubbornness with 
which the ruling classes still adhered to the old divinities, and lav- 
ished wealth in promoting a worship that was soon to pass away. The 
fact, however, that the sculptures of the Temple of the Sun were never 
finished, as we observed for ourselves, proves that this was an expiring 
effort of heathenism. While the ruined condition of these monuments, 
solidly built to last as long as the world should stand, intimates to us 
the folly of those who oppose the purposes of God and the advancement 
of His conquering kingdom. The stone that Daniel saw, "cut out of 
the mountain without hands," has smitten and broken to pieces that 
"great image" which symbolized the world-kingdoms of heathenism.* 

And so too shall Christianity prevail over all present forms of false 
religion, including the Mohammedanism which yet exercises its blighting 
sway over this unfortunate land. We found an indication of its decline 
in a ruined mosque on the north side of Baalbec, which we visited. 
Built before Saladin's day it was restored and adorned by him. as is 
stated in an Arabic inscription on the inner wall. It contains three 
rows of Corinthian pillars, some of granite, some of porphyry, and some 
of limestone — doubtless pillaged from the ancient temples — and still 
retaining much of their polished beauty. Now roofless and untenanted, 
it is a mark left by the high tide of Mohammedanism hundreds of years 
ago. There is no disposition to repair it, nor to repair the other ruined 
mosque half a mile east of the town. But Protestant Missions are vigor- 
ously pushing their work here. An American Mission School and a 
school of the British Syrian School Society have several hundred children 
under their care, some of them Mohammedan children. Here as else- 
where it is demonstrated that there is vitality in the religion of the 
cross ; while a dry rot has attacked Islam, and it will fall in due time. 

'Dan. 2:31-45. 



B A ALB EC. 



231 



We met in the town many of these children and young people, who 
could talk a little English, and they followed us about to sell their 
needle-work and various trinkets. In their hearts have been sown the 
seeds of gospel-truth, and from this small beginning what blessed results 
may one day be reaped ! We are reminded of the words of the Psalmist. — 
" There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the 
mountains ; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon • and they of the 
city shall flourish like grass of the earth." * These Mission schools are 
only a handful of corn as it were, sown in the most unpropitious locality, 
"upon the top of the mountains;" but they shall produce a luxuriant 
growth that will rustle in the wind like the forests of Lebanon. And the 
subjects of Christ's kingdom, typified by the earthly Jerusalem, shall in- 
crease and be plentiful as the blades of grass that appear after spring 
showers. There is yet hope for Syria in these Protestant schools, planted 
not only in Damascus and Baalbec and Zahleh and Beirut, but in many 
little towns and villages all through the country. Surely the prophecy 
of the Psalmist, which draws its metaphor from their own Lebanon, pe- 
culiarly encourages us to hope for the conversion of these Syrians. 

* Ps. 72: 16. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



Beirut. 

UCH as the remarkable ruins of Baalbec offered to our thought, 
not even they could divert us from contemplation of the de- 
lightful scenery that crisp morning when we left the town, and 
trotted easily over the hard, smooth diligence-road across the great 
plain of Bukaa. The long range of Lebanon on our right rising from 
eight to ten thousand feet above the sea, and the range of Anti- Leba- 
non on the left, were both crowned with snow — a most majestic sight ! 
While the fertile, highly cultivated plain between them, itself 3000 feet 
above the sea, green with wheat-fields and dotted with villages and level 
as a Western prairie, seemed like a lovely picture set in a pure white 
frame. Probably it is the bed of an ancient lake, and the soil is deep 
and inexhaustible. We were in high spirits, for now we had reached 
our farthest point north, and had turned our faces south-west toward 
the Mediterranean, hometvard bound! Only two days more of riding 
remained, and we should clasp civilization again at Beirut, and start 
upon our return-voyage. Even our jaded horses caught the contagion 
of our excitement, and required no stimulus of whip to urge them on. 

About a mile out of Baalbec we came to a small ruined structure by 
the side of the road, a circular "weli" or place of prayer, consisting of 
eight round granite pillars supporting an entablature. Here the Mos- 
lems say that Eve wept for Abel after his murder by Cain ; and they 
regard it as a sacred place. On we rode for five long hours till we made 
our noonday halt near the village of Abla ; meanwhile veering over the 
plain to the Lebanon side, and fording many sparkling little brooks that 
give the plain its fertility, and crossing the river Litany by a bridge. 
After lunch we passed through the village of Kerah Nuh, where they 
pointed out to us the house of an Englishman built over what is called 
Noah's tomb ; — in reality a piece of old Roman aqueduct, but asserted 



BEIRUT. 



233 



by the Moslems to be Noah's tomb. It is 210 feet long; but even so 
tradition says that the tomb was too short for the patriarch, and they 
had to crook his knees and plant his lower limbs straight in the ground 
to get him in ! We wondered how, if he was of such size, he man- 
aged to avoid upsetting the ark, when he went to the window to let the 
dove in. 

We soon reached the neighboring city of Zahleh, a place of 20,000 
population, which contains many well built houses and superior bazaars. 
There is an air of thrift and prosperity about Zahleh, and the eye lests 
with admiration upon the beautiful orchards and gardens in the plain 
below the elevation on which the city is built. This is one of the mis- 
sion-stations of the American Presbyterians, whose headquarters are at 
Beirut. The inhabitants are mostly Christians, and they suffered much 
in the massacre in i860, when the Druses captured and burned the 
town. Another hour or so brought us to our camp, which was pitched 
nearer than was intended, because the camping ground at Shtora a half 
hour further on was preoccupied. Heie we made everything snug, as 
the sky seemed to portend a storm ; but though the clouds were heavy, 
no rain fell. After dinner our camp-tire was lighted, and a party of na- 
tives, both men and girls, gave us an exhibition of some of their Syrian 
dances ; which if less animated than the Bedouin dances were more 
graceful. Many of these Syrians had bright and intelligent faces, and 
showed evidence that they had come in contact with our western civil- 
ization. 

Our last day's ride was to be a long one, thirty-one miles ; so we 
made an early start about 6:40 a. m. The morning was bright and 
cool, but it grew warmer during the day — especially as we descended 
toward the sea. In half an hour we came to the village of Shtora, 
where the road from Baal bee joins the diligence-road from Damascus 
to Beirut. Beyond Shtora we began to climb the foot-hills of Lebanon ; 
and as we zigzagged up we obtained charming views of the green valley 
that we had left. There had been a mist in the early morning, which 
had lifted from the valley but still clung to the sides of Anti-Lebanon 
opposite to us; and now like a bridal veil half revealed and half con- 
cealed the majestic beauty of the mountain. While far in the south 
peerless, snow-capped Hermon was still in plain view, apparently only 
a few miles away, but really several days' journey distant. The scenery 
reminds one not a little of Switzerland; and the resemblance is helped 
by the long line of telegraph-wires overhead and the fine macadamized 



?34 



A DO MINE IN BIB IE BANDS. 



road beneath, — twin signs of civilization that it seems strange to find in 
an Oriental land. The road is well constructed, and is kept in perfect 
repair ; and over it passes a considerable traffic in huge covered wag- 
ons drawn by three, sometimes by four, mules. We met at intervals 
long trains of these wagons bringing goods from Beirut to Damascus ; 
some of them loaded with steel rails, eight rails in a wagon, for a new 
railroad that is to be built from Damascus to the Hauran to tap that 
rich agricultural region. It is also contemplated to build a railroad be- 
tween Beirut and Damascus. The returning trains of wagons that we 
passed as they slowly toiled up the winding ascents were transporting 
the treasures of the east for western consumption. So there was a con- 
stant march and countermarch over this magnificent highway. 

As we climbed higher we found great banks of snow as yet unmelted 
lying alongside the road ; in part the remains of that storm from which we 
had suffered in the wilderness of Benjamin, and which had blocked this 
road for five days. Now we had entered into the heart of Lebanon, 
and our track wound around one mountain-peak after another, still 
leading us upward. Every four or five miles there was a stone khan or 
post-house, where the diligences change horses ; and at one of them we 
found about noon our lunch-tent pitched in the adjoining yard, and we 
took our last lunch together in camp-fashion sitting on the ground. 
When we mounted again we soon reached the summit, from which is 
gained the grandest prospect of the whole ride. Far to the south the 
peaks of Hermon clothed in dazzling white seemed to support the sky. 
On the north and west the snow-covered tops of Lebanon stretched like 
great white-capped waves around us. To the east, where we should 
have seen the lesser mountains and foot-hills and the green plain with 
the silver river flowing through it to the sea, the clouds below us so shut 
off our view that we could see only a strip of blue on the horizon be- 
yond them, which we were told was the Mediterranean. We were far 
above the clouds at this point in undimmed sunshine ; but as we began 
to descend by an easy grade, we entered the region of drifting vapor ; 
and still descending we passed at length below the clouds, and saw the 
coast and the line of white breakers along the shore, and upon a pro- 
montory jutting into the sea the city of Beirut many miles away. 

Now our road wound for some distance along the side of a mountain 
on the south of a great valley, whose north wall rose precipitously to the 
snows above. A river ran through this valley, in which meadows and 
grain-fields lay like mosaic work clustering about numerous villages, and 



BEIRUT. 



235 



dark pine woods clung to the slopes. Still our road followed the les- 
sening ridge, till as we approached the city we found it embowered in groves 
of mulberry-trees, mingled with vines and fig-trees. This is the centre 
of the silk industry of the country, and the mulberry trees are raised to 
feed the silk-worms. Groves of olives occupy the higher ground, and 
lofty palms wave their graceful foliage in lower, sheltered spots. 
The road became alive with people ; some on foot, some on horses or 
mules or donkeys, some riding in stylish carriages, and some in carts or 
wagons ; indicating the busy life of a great city close at hand. We 
passed the Pineta, a large grove of pine-trees with gardens and a Casino 
adjoining, where a band of music plays evenings, and whither the city- 
people resort for amusement ; and then passing the soldiers' barracks we 
entered the city, and rode through its bustling streets to the opposite 
side, where we reached our quarters in the New Hotel, that stands on the 
very shore of the Mediterranean. Here we dismounted ; and patting 
our faithful horses, who had borne us nearly four hundred miles in safety, 
we bade them good-bye, and entered our hotel to resume for good and 
all the habits of civilized life. 

It was Saturday evening, and our party were to spend one more Sab- 
bath together before breaking up into three sections. One section of 
nine was to sail for Constantinople on Monday afternoon ; another of 
fifteen including our guide was to sail for the same port on Tuesday 
afternoon ; and nine of us at the same time were to take steamer for 
Marseilles on our return home. We had been so intimately and pleas- 
antly associated for these many weeks that it seemed like a separation 
of old friends ; and we were glad to have the opportunity of attend- 
ing religious service together Sunday morning in the church of the 
American Presbyterian Mission, and hearing one of our own clergymen 
preach — as he was invited to do by the pastor, Rev. Mr. Mackay. The 
church is a handsome stone edifice seating about 500; its tower con- 
tains a clock, and there is a fine organ within. The Professors in the 
Syrian Protestant College and their families and the Missionaries were 
in attendance, and a few American residents, and other visitors like 
ourselves; but the church was not half full. At an earlier Arabic 
service held every Sunday morning for the natives, I was told, there was 
a much larger congregation present. 

In the evening a number of us walked up to the College, a mile from 
the hotel and at the south-west end of the city, and attended a service 
held for the students, at which Col. Franklin Fairbanks of St. Johns- 



236 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



bury, Vt., spoke. It was pleasant to see once more the good gray head 
of that earnest Christian worker, and to take him by the hand at the 
close of the meeting. And it was an interesting sight to look upon so 
many intelligent young men of Syria, all wearing the red fez which they 
did not remove from their heads during the services, and listening rev- 
erently to the story of the gospel, and joining with animation in the 
singing of both English and Arabic hymns. They had the college air 
and manner unmistakably, and but for their dark complexions and 
Oriental dress might have been taken for American students. After the 
meeting we met Rev. Dr. Bliss, the President of the College, who in- 
vited us to his room below, where we signed our names in his Visitors' 
Register and talked with several of the Professors, who gave us much 
information about the institution, its aims, and its achievements. 

A second visit to this College I made by daylight next day, and ad- 
mired its superb location on high ground looking off on the Mediter- 
ranean, and its substantial buildings, and its efficient corps of instruct- 
ors. Founded about thirty years ago by American liberality and upon 
the general plan of our American Colleges modified to suit Oriental 
needs, it would take rank among the best of our home institutions. It 
was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York, and its 
Trustees are well known Christian men of New York city. Its Board 
of Managers, twenty-four in number, consists of American and British 
residents in Syria and Egypt. It has a Faculty of twenty Professors 
and teachers ; and in its three departments, Preparatory, Collegiate and 
Medical, has nearly 250 students. A Theological Seminary, not or- 
ganically connected with the College, occupies its own building in the 
College grounds, and is supported by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign 
Missions. From the Collegiate and Medical departments have been 
graduated in the past over 300 young men, while some 800 students 
have taken a partial course without graduating. Who can estimate the 
leavening influence exercised by these young men, who have gone forth 
more or less affected by the sound Christian instruction received in this 
noble institution ? Many of them have been converted to Christ, and 
have witnessed faithfully for him. For while direct efforts to proselyte 
are not attempted in the College, expositions of the Bible are given 
every week, Christian Moral Philosophy is taught, and morning and 
evening prayers aie held daily and a church service and Sabbath-school 
every Sunday, which all resident students are required to attend. Be- 
sides these exercises the personal intercourse of Professors with students 



BEIRUT. 



237 



brings the latter into contact with evangelical truth. All the Oriental 
sects of Christianity are represented among the students — Protestants, 
Orthodox Greeks, Papal Greeks, Latins, Maronites, and Armenians — 
and the Mohammedans as well ; and they learn at least by friendly as- 
sociation to moderate their mutual hostilities. 

We saw the various buildings — the main building containing recita- 
tion-halls and dormitories and library, the Medical Building, the Ob- 
servatory, the Chemical Laboratory, and the Dodge Memorial Hall for 
the use of the Preparatory Department. Ascending the tower above the 
clock on the main building, we obtained a fine view of the city and the 
glittering horse-shoe of the bay and Mount Lebanon studded with 
thriving villages, of which we counted twenty-five within sight. Coming 
down we attended College prayers at five p. m. in the beautiful chapel 
or Assembly Hall, donated by the late Frederic Marquand of New 
York. It is built of stone in the old English style, and will seat eight 
or nine hundred people. The students first sang an Arabic hymn to 
the tune of " Beulah-land," accompanied by a fine pipe-organ ; and 
then Prof. Schauffler read the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount 
in English, and prayed in English. The young men were quite as at- 
tentive and devout in demeanor as any body of students at home ; and 
indeed they could not but respect such eminent and godly men as they 
have for instructors. From the beginning this College has enjoyed the 
services of a choice corps of Professors. 

And the Syrian Mission has been equally fortunate in its missionaries, 
who have labored here in Beirut and its out-stations. The names of 
the late Revs. Levi Parsons, Pliny Fiske, William Goodell, William M. 
Thompson, Eli Smith, and Dr. Van Dyck were distinguished names in 
the Christian world a generation ago. And more recent laborers — such 
as Rev. Drs. Simeon H. Calhoun, Eddy, Post, Bliss, Henry Jessup, 
Samuel Jessup, Porter, Dodge, and Dennis — have been men no less 
distinguished for their piety and attainments. When this Syrian Mis- 
sion was transferred from the American Board to the Presbyterian 
Board of Foreign Missions, after the reunion of the two branches of the 
Presbyterian church in 1870, it was called the crown-jewel of the Mis- 
sions of the American Board; and fitly so. Nor has it under Presby- 
terian auspices failed to maintain its high standard of intellectual and 
spiritual efficiency and success. 

We visited the Syrian school for girls under the care of this Mission, 
which is situated near the American church and Publication-house. 



A DO MINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



We were kindly received, and were shown through the school-rooms 
and dormitories of the large and well appointed building ; and saw 
some of the teachers and bright-eyed scholars at their work. An in- 
teresting incident ol our visit was that we were taken into the room in 
which Drs. Eli Smith and Van Dyck translated the Bible into Arabic. 
A marble tablet in the wall commemorates this great and useful achieve- 
ment, which has given to the Arabic-speaking people of the world one 
of the best versions of the Bible ever made. We also went into the 
Publication-house, and were taken through all the departments — the 
composing room, the press-room, the book-bindery, the type-foundry, 
and even the engine-room, as well as the crowded sales-rooms. Tens 
of thousands of volumes in the Arabic language, — Bibles, religious 
books, tracts, school-books — are annually issued from this Publication- 
house, besides several newspapers. It is indeed the left arm of the 
Mission, if we regard the predominating educational work as the right 
arm. 

Perhaps the most noticeable feature of missionary effort in Syria, not 
only on the part of American Presbyterians but of other Christian bodies, 
is this predominance given to educational work. Thus in the one city 
of Beirut there are six colleges, seven female seminaries, and ninety 
common schools with 16000 pupils; and in all the cities and principal 
towns of the country schools are multiplied. There are excellent reasons 
for this course. The intelligence and progressive spirit of the Syrians 
demand good educational facilities; and Syria must furnish the workers 
that will yet be required to labor in the vast field of the Arabic-speaking 
peoples, that will by and by be opened. Moreover the Papal and 
Jesuit Missions are striving hard to secure a hold upon the children and 
youth, and even the native sects are raising their educational standards. 
Hence Protestant societies are waging a campaign of intelligence in this 
land. The British Syrian School Society and the Prussian Deaconesses 
of Kaiserswerth are doing a notable work, and the Scotch schools are 
similarly prosperous. While the work of philanthropy goes hand in 
hand with that of education. Orphanages, and institutions for the blind 
and for cripples, and hospitals, and medical dispensaries commend to all 
the beneficent religion of the gospel. 

On the last evening, of our stay in Beirut it was my privilege to at- 
tend and address upon invitation the weekly prayer-meeting and mis- 
sionary conference of the Faculty of the Syrian Protestant College at the 
house of Dr. Eddy. One of the young Professors came to the hotel for 



BEIR UT. 



239 



me, and took me to the house not far from the American church. In 
the large drawing-room were gathered the Professors and their families 
and associates — a rare company of choice spirits, whose earnest purpose 
and thorough Christian culture were imprinted upon their very counte- 
nances. It was a very pleasant errand to bring them words of encourage- 
ment and sympathy from the home churches, and to express apprecia- 
tion of their noble work in Syria. Afterwards Rev. Dr. Reynolds of 
Van in Armenia, who was on his way home for a furlough, was called 
upon to speak about the Mission in Armenia; and told us of its diffi 
culties, its trials, and of the triumphs of the cross there. Fervent 
prayers were offered, and hymns of faith and hope were sung ; and it 
seemed good to tarry thus among our Christian soldiers who are at the 
front prosecuting the warfare of the church. If it helps our missionaries 
to come home to a land of gospel light and to stand with us awhile up- 
on the high places of Zion, it would in a different way help us Christians 
at home, if we could all visit the missionaries at their posts of duty, and 
mingle with them in worship and service. 

Doubtless the reader has already inferred, that what mainly interested 
me in Beirut was the missionary work. Truly it was; for I found noth- 
ing else there so worthy of attention as the prospect of a Christian re- 
generation of the east that is offered at these missionary headquarters.- 
Yet there are in the neighborhood of the city some notable relics of the 
ancient Egyptians and Assyrians in certain inscriptions upon the rocks 
at Dog River. The excursion may be made by boat across the bay of 
Beirut to its north shore; but it is not a long distance to ride around by 
land, crossing the Beirut River and the Dead River on the way. Ap- 
proaching the mountains that shut m the bay on the north, one finds 
the remains of an old Roman road constructed along the side of a pro- 
jecting cape, with a precipice on one side of it towards the sea and 
steep cliffs on the other side. Parts of these cliffs have been smoothed 
into tablets, on which successive conquerors have recorded their deeds. 
One inscription states that this rocky pass was cut around the cape by 
order of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus about 180 A. D. But ages before 
his day there was some kind of a road here, by which armies passed to 
and fro, as is indicated by the sculptures cut in the face of the rock. 
Three of these are Egyptian. One is dedicated to the god Phthah by 
Rameses II, and celebrates the latter's victories over the Hittites. An- 
other represents Rameses adoring Ra, the sun-god ; and the third re- 
cords other expeditions of this Egyptian hero. The remaining six in- 



240 



A D OMINE IN BIBLE LANDS. 



scriptions are Assyrian. One shows a full length figure of Esarhaddon, 
and describes his victory over Phenicia and Egypt. Another tells the 
story of Sennacherib's invasion of Palestine. And the others glorify the 
deeds of Shalmaneser and Assurnazirpal and Tiglath Pileser and Nebu- 
chadnezzar. It is indeed a striking series of chronicles that have been 
preserved for thousands of years m these rocks. 

The city of Beirut itself is also very interesting for two reasons, its 
great antiquity and its purely modern aspect. It was a Phenician set- 
tlement at first, and bore the name of Berothah. The Greeks and Ro- 
mans called it Berytus; and by Augustus it was made a Roman colony, 
and was adorned with a theatre, baths, and amphitheatre by Herod 
Agrippa. Under the later Roman emperors it was the seat of a famous 
school of law. After its capture by the Saracens it declined; but in 
the time of the Crusades rose again into importance, and often 
changed hands in the course of war. Subsequently it was insignificant, 
till in the present century it became the commercial port where the 
east and the west meet in mutually profitable intercouse. During the 
last seventy years its population has grown from 9,000 to 100,000 ; wa- 
ter-works, gas, paved streets, and omnibus-lines have been introduced ; 
and it is the cleanest, healthiest, most modernized, and most enterpris- 
ing city in the Turkish Empire. While its location upon the sea with 
the glorious background of mountains combines almost every element of 
beauty. 

Yet from this charming spot, where both nature and man have done 
so much to make one's stay attractive, we not unwillingly departed ; 
for we were going home. We walked to the landing, and took small boats 
for our steamers — the Niger bound for Marseilles and the Senegal bound 
for Constantinople — both of the French line, the Messageries Mari- 
times. Our friends who were going to Constantinople accompanied us 
to our ship, where we exchanged regretful farewells, and they rowed 
away ; and we made ourselves comfortable for our nine day's sail upon 
the blue Mediterranean. A few hours later when the sun had set, and 
its last gleams had faded away from snowy Lebanon, and twilight was 
wrapping in its dusky mantle the busy town and the shipping in the 
quiet harbor, our steamer gently started, and we bade goodbye to the 
twinkling lights of Beirut and the receding shores of Syria. 



INDEX 



PAGES. 

Abana 213 222 

Abel of Beth-maachab 203 

Abilene 225 

Abraham 138, 163, 204, 222 

Aceldama 132 

Achor 148, 156 

Ai , 158, 162 

Ajalon 93 

Alexandria 1 

buildings 7 

harbor 3 

Mahmoodeah Canal 8 

Pompey's Pillar 8 

street scenes 5, 6 

villas 8 

Amunoph III 39, 53 

Andromeda 80 

Anti Lebanon 224, 226 

Arimathsea 93 

Baalbec 224 

Missions 230, 231 

Mosques 230 

stones and walls 229 

the Great Temple 227, 228 

the Temple of the Sun 228, 229 

Baalgad 206 

Backsheesh . 37, 46. 60, 62 

Bab-el-Molook 47. 48 

Bedouins 93. 94 

in Esdraelon 181 

in the plain of Merom 201, 202 

robbers 143, 156 

tents 159, 201 

their dances 149, 202 

Beeroth 168 

Beirut 235 

American Church 235 

history of 240 

Presbyterian Missions 23~-239 

schools 238 

sculptures at Dog River — 239, 240 

surroundings 235 

Syrian Protestant College. ..236, 237 



PAGES. 

Benjamin, Wilderness of. ,159-162 

Bethany 145, 146 

Bethel 163, 168 

Bethlehem 136 

Church of the Nativity 139-141 

fields of Boaz 142 

village of the Shepherds 141 

well of 139 

Bethsaida 197 

Bethshan 182 

Bethshemesh 94 

Bittir and Bar Cocheba 95 

Boulak Museum... 62-65 

Bread, Arab. 2. 3, 162 

Egyptian 61 

Bubastis 73 

Bukaa 232 

Ceesarea Philippi 206, 207 

Cairo 10 

buildings and streets 11 

citadel 14 

history of 12 

mosque of Mohammed Ali ...14, is 

mosque of Sultan Hassan 12, 13 

university 15, 16 

Camel-riding 24 

Capernaum 196, 197 

Casting the net 194 

Cherith 147, 148 

Chorazin 197 

Chufu 21 

Cleopatra 60 

Colossi, the twin 53 

Copts 66 

church in Cairo 67 

language and religion 67, 68 

reformation among 72 

villages of 53. 6o. 66 

Crusaders 190 

Dar-el-Bahari 48, 51,64 

Damascus 211 

history of 222 

Hotel Demetri 214. 



INDEX. 



Damascus — Continued. 

houses of Judas and Ananias — 215 

mansions visited 216 

manufactures and commerce — 221 

minaret of Jesus 219 

Protestant Missions 223 

road to Beirut 223, 224 

streets and bazaars... .214, 215, 221 

the Great Mosque 217-220 

Tomb of Saladin 21 9 

walls and gates 215 

Dan 204, 205 

David, takes Jerusalem 119 

tower of 1 20 

Dead Sea 150-153 

Denderah 58-60 

Desert 47 

Dervishes 69, 70 

Donkeys, 40, 45, 46 

Dorcas 83 

Dothan 180 

Druses 209, 210, 223 

Ebal, Mount 171, 172, 174 

Egypt, dynasties of 4 

gift of the Nile 27 

English in 14, 73 

present degradation 5 

soil 10 

sunsets 33, 34 

taxes 9 

trees 33 

Egyptians, agriculture of 10, 30 

ancient religion of 13, 49, 50 



dress of 5,6 

irrigation 31 

Ekron 93 

El-Buttauf, plain of 189 

Embalming 44, 45 

Endor 182 

Enrogel, Well of 1 32 

Enshemesh 146 

Esdraelon, Plain of ,...]Si 

Farshoot 61 

Fellaheen 8, 9 ^3, 62 

Floyd, Rolla 81. 82 

Fountains 179 

of Banias 206 

Belat 201 

Elisha 157 

El Mellahah 201 

Fijeh 225 

Jezebel 1S3 



PAGES. 

Fountains — Continved, 

of the Jordan 205 

the Robbers 169 

the Virgin 131 

Galilee, Sea of 191, 192 

Gath-hepher 189 

Gennesaret, Plain of 191, 196, 197 

Gerizim, Mount 171, 172, 174 

Gethsemane 129, 130 

Gezer 93 

Ghizeh ...18, 62 

Gilgal ....154, 155 

Gihon, Pool of 132, 137 

Valley of 132 

Goshen 73 

Grass on the housetops 91, 92 

Hasbiyah, River of 203 

Hatasu, Queen 42, 54 

temple of 51, 52 

Hathor 59 

Hazarshual 92 

Hazor 200, 201 

Hermon, Little 184 

Hermon, Mount... . 208, 209, 212, 220 

Hinnom, Valley of 132 

Hittites 38. 52, 54 

Horus 59, 60 

Ismailia 73, 74 

Ismail Pasha 62 

Iarawaddy, the 79 

Jacob's burial 44 

Jacob's Well 172, 173 

Jaffa 79 

American Colony at 82 

Convents S5 

harbor of 79-80 

history of 87 

hotel 82 

house of Simon the tanner.... 84-85 

landing at 81 

orange-groves 82-S3 

schools and hospitals 85, 86 

streets and street-scenes 84 

Jenin 180 

Jericho, Ancient 157, T58 

Jericho, Modern 154 

road to 146. 147 

Jerusalem 97 

American house 100 

Armenian Convent and 

Church 121, 122 

Church of St. Anne 108 



INDEX. 



243 



PAGES. 

Jerusalem — Continued. 

Church of the Holy Sepul- 
chre 114-T18 

Coenaculum 122 

Convent of Notre Dame. ..112, 113 

Cradle of Jesus • 107 

degradation and ruins .' Q7> 98 

English Church 121 

general view of 99, 102 

Golden Gate 108 

Hospital of St. John 124 

Jewish Synagogues 125, 126 

Jews' Wailing-place 125 

Mosque el-Aksa 107 

Mosque of Omar 105, 106 

Palace of Caiaphas 123 

Pilate's judgment hall 1 10, Iil 

Pool of Bethesda 108, 109 

Pool of Hezekiah 124 

Robinson's Arch 125 

Solomon's Quarries ■ l 33 

Solomon's Stables 107 

situation of... 101 

the modern Calvaty 1 33— r 35 

Tomb of David 122, 123 

Tower of Antonia 104 

Tower of David 120 

Via Dolorosa 113 

walls and gates 99 

Jezreel 182, 183 

Jordan, fords of the 154 

river 153 

Joseph's tomb ..173 

well 15 

Juneh 212, 213 

Kantarah 74 

Karnak, Temple ol 40-42 

Kefr Hauwar 212 

Kefr Kenna or Cana 189 

Keneh 58 

Khan of Deir Dewan 162 

of the Good Samaritan 146 

of Jubb Yusef 198 

of Minyeh 197 

Koorneh, Temple of 46, 47 

Kishon 18 r. 185 

Kurun Hattin igo 

Latron 93 

Lebanon 226, 233, 234 

Lebonah 170 

Luxor, described 36 

American Consul at 58 

Temple of 37~39 



PAGES. 

Lydda 92 

Magdala , 191, 196 

Mar-Ehas 137 

Mareotis, Lake 10 

Mariette 47, 62 

Medinet Haboo 53—56 

Mejdel „ 209, 210 

Memlooks 15 

Memphis 23, 30 

Menepthah 38, 46 

Menzaleh, Lake 74 

Merom, Waters of igg 

Missions in Egypt 71, 72 

Mohammed 106, 213, 219 

Mohammedans, prayers of 2, 13 

Mohammedan religion... 16, 17, 69, 70 

Moreh or El Mukhnah I71 

Moses 28 

Mud houses 8, 61, 91, 92 

Nablous 171 

commerce of 176, 1 77 

fanaticism of I75 

history of 1 74 

Jacob's Tower 176 

Rev. Mr. El Karey's Mission. ..176 

Samaritan Synagogue 175 

Nain 184 

Nazareth 186 

brow of the hill 187 

chapels 187 

Church of the Annunciation 187 

Fountain of the Virgin 188 

Hotel 186 

situation of 186 

Neby Samwil 101, 138 

Nile, navigation of 29 

steamers 32 

Nilometer 28. 29 

Nut 60 

Obelisk in New York 7 

in the Place de la Concorde 37 

of Queen Hatasu 42 

of Rameses II 37 

of Thothmes 1 42 

Olives, Mount of 128, 129 

buildings on 145 

situation 101 

view from 144 

Ophrah 16S 

Osiridean pillars 52, 55 

Osiris.. 50, 60 

Palanquins 150, t6o. 226 

Paul 207, 212, 213, 215 



244 



INDEX. 



Pelicans 74 

Pentaour 38 

Pharos 3 

Pharpar — 212 

Pilgrims bathing 154 

Russian 129, 130, 166, 167 

Port Said 74. 75 

Ptah-Hotep 4 

Ptolemy 1 40 

Pyramids -- 18 

of Abooseer 23 

of Chephren 22 

of Dahshoor 23 

of Medum 24 

of Menkaura 22 

of Sakkarah 23 

the Great Pyramid 19-22 

Quarantania 147. 155^ '58 

Railroad from Jaffa to Jerusalem, 88 89 
Rain in the Holy Land.. .127, 159-162 

Ramallah 93 

convent of 163, 164 

Friends' Mission 166 

Russian Pdgrims in 167 

street-fight 166 

Rameses II 37, 38, 41. 46, 52, 64 

Rameses III 40, 49> 54-56, 64 

Rameseum, the 52 

Ramleh 9 2 > 93 

Rephaim 137 

Rhoda, Island of 28 

Sais ....6 

Sand storm 34 

Samaria 1 78, 179 

Samaritans r 75, 176 

Seffurieh or Sepphoris 189 

Seti 1 41. 46, 48, 64 

Sharon, Plain of 89 

cultivation of 90 

wild flowers 90, 91 

Shiloh t?o 

Shtora 233 

Shunem , 183, 184 

Siloam, Pool of ....131, 132 

village of 131 

Sinjil T69 



PAGES. 

Siout 32 

Smyth, Prof. Piazzi 25, 26 

Snow in Jerusalem 127 

Sodom, Apples of 150 

destruction of 152, 153 

Sohag 32, 61. 62 

Solomon's Pools 139 

Sphinx, The 24, 25 

avenues of sphinxes 37, 40 

Subeibeh 208, 209 

Suez Canal 73, 74 

Sychar 172, 174 

Tabor, Mount 1S4, 185 

Tell-el-Kebir -4, 73 

Terraces in Palestine 94 

Tewfik Rabbani, The I, 2 

Thebes ••••35- 36- 

Tiberias 192, 193 

Timsah, Lake 74 

Tombs, costly 45 

of Absalom 131 

of Cain and Abel 224, 225 

of Eleazar 171 

of Jehoshaphat, St. James 

and Zechariah 1 3 r 

of the Kings 27, 128 

of Noah 232, 233 

of Phinehas 171 

of Rachel 138, 139 

of Rameses III 49 

of Rameses IV, VI and IX 49 

of Seth 226 

of Seti 1 48 

of the Virgin Mary 130 

Transfiguration 184, 208 

Usurtesen I 42 

Wady Barada 224, 225 ' 

Hamam 196 

El.Haramiyeh 168 

Salman 94 

Well of the Star 137 

Yafufeh 226 

Zagazig .73 

Zahleh 233 

Zebedany ..225 

Zorah *. 94 



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